The One and Justice
by TheChosenDragon
Summary: Max just wanted to be with his family and wife. But then he finds himself thrust onto a world where not his own, what will the Justice League think of this stranger? Some think he is an uncontrollable threat to everyone. Or is he a much needed friend?
1. The beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Justice League characters in any form or fashion. They are owned by their rightful creators and Dc Comics. The character Max Colbern and Mendara Crystal are owned by me and will be appearing in a forthcoming sci-fi novel. Enjoy.

As the dust settled from the immense crash of bodies, only one man limped from the crater. Three of his friends, and teammates, stumbled towards the dust cloud lingering in the air. One man, carrying a broken right arm in a glowing green sling, waved his left hand in front of his face to try to clear some of the dust from this sight. His left hand, the white glove torn to pieces, was caked in dried and dirt clotted blood as it dripped from an open gash on his forearm. Cuts covered his body and his famed green, black and white uniform, known throughout the known cosmos as being that of a universal police force. He was just one of four officers from Earth. Next to him stood a tall statuesque raven haired woman; a body hugging uniform consisting of a unique variation to the Stars and Stripes of the American flag that had similar battle ware to her teammate. Her right eye was swollen shut as a gash bled from just above her eye, blood dripping down her almost perfect face. To see her face would make a man cry if they were to see such perfection bruised and bloodied. With an arm draped over her shoulders, their other teammate, her wings drooped down in exhaustion and fatigue, a woman with shoulder length dark brown hair growled towards the crate. In her right hand, an electrified mace hung from an exhausted arm. The mace was light when she carried it into battle and everywhere she went, but now it felt as if she were carrying a one ton weight with her.

"I can see someone," the man called out to his teammates. "This better not be him, I don't know how much more we can take."

"I'll keep fighting until my last dying breath," the winged woman growled, trying to stand by herself. Her left leg screamed out in furious pain as she tried to stand on broken bones. She tried not to show it, but the pain was almost too much for her to bare and she has seen battles that would make any war-hardened Earth soldier cry in fear.

"Let's hope that won't be any time soon, Shayera," a deep male voice said from within the dust cloud covered crate. Immediately, all three seemed to visibly relax at the voice of their fellow team member. "I don't think that monstrosity with ever work again."

Behind the tall man, dressed in his famous blue uniform with his well known red "S" on his chest, were cables and wiring and twisted metal that once was the monster that had torn through their team. The man held onto wiring and cables with his right hand. Those were connected to a mixture of what would be called a bio-organic war machine, now just a pile of scrap. The head, which the tall man pulled along, dwarfed all of them.

"Has anyone ever seen anything like this monster," the man with the "S" asked his team. "Hal, has the Corps ever seen or heard of such technology before?"

Hal Jordan, wiping dust from his eyes, did not know. "Ring, can you analyze this thing," On his right hand, a green ring in the shape of a lantern, the symbol for the Green Lantern Corp, sparked.

"Analyzing…" a voice from the ring said. "Analysis is complete. No know record of any confrontations with The Corp. Design and technology all unknown."

"There you have it Superman," Hal said with a cough. "I have never seen anything like this before. I have seen things that were bio-mechanical, but they all involved synthetics and compound much more sophisticated and easier to trace than this thing."

"And there are no records of any Thanagarian warrior ever encountering something like this either, Superman," Shayera said from Wonder Woman's right. "Though, that thing would be a prize to have in any civilization's command, if you ask me."

Suddenly, breaking the silence that surrounded them in the Mohave Desert, Hal's ring began screaming with an alarm.

"Danger! Danger!" the ring's voice called out to them. "Core fuel center in device is reaching critical. Naked singularity found!"

"A naked singularity," Hal called out in shock. "Ring, what is the distance that this thing with wind out taken out?"

"Size of naked singularity, inside fuel center, will destroy everything within ten spherical miles."

"How much time," Hal called out in terror.

"Singularity has already started to break down. Thirteen seconds till final explosion."

Hearing the horrid news, Superman, the fastest and most powerful man in the world, quickly dashed back to what was the main structure of the beast. Lifting the monstrosity up into the air in both hands, Superman heaved the mass skyward, hoping that the distance would be far enough away from the Earth's surface.

Nine seconds later, the sky above the majority of the Southwest had a second sun, for a whole four seconds.

"Talk about going out with a bang," a man said from Hal's left. He was dressed in a crimson uniform with a yellow lightning bolt on his chest.

"For being the fastest man alive, Flash, what took you so long to get here Wally," Hal asked his long time friend. "And you have to stop with the bad one-liners."

With a smirk on his face, Wally West shrugged his shoulders. "You guys knew it was my day off today. I was off with the family visiting the Grand Canyon when suddenly there was a second sun exploding into the sky."

"That would be the singularity fuel center that exploded from inside the monster we were fighting," Wonder Woman began as she helped Shayera over to Wally. "Superman finally got a hold of it where the thing could not reach and took him up and slammed him back down to Earth, creating that large crater." Wonder Woman point behind Superman as she finished.

"And the only thing that we have left is the thing's head," Superman said as he pulled the mass behind him. "I managed to X-ray the head and found a massive database inside. Maybe we can hack into it and find out who or what created this thing."

Wally stood in awe at the size of the thing's head. It towered over then by and easy twenty feet. He suddenly felt like he was the small fisherman who had found the giant Gulliver lying on the beach.

Then, without any warning, an ear-piercing siren erupted from the disembodied head.

"Systems in danger, ejection of corrupted processor power core in three seconds," a ghostly voice said in English. "Most save core data. Must save core data."

All of them stood in shock. There was no trace of any other power source. Superman did not see any and neither did Hal's ring.

From the side facing the heroes, a hatch roughly ten square feet in size, shot off and landed just beyond Wally. On the hatch was a device that looked similar to a fusion reactor, but shrunk down to the size of a man. There was no time for any of them to react. Before Superman, or even The Flash, could react, the generator was engulfed in a bright white glow. They were about to die, not by the hands of some super villain or by some Evil God or Rogue, they were to die in a simple fusion reactor explosion.

"Am I dead," Wally asked out loud a few seconds after the explosion. All he could see was a bright and searing white light. When he opened his eyes, his mind could not take in what he was seeing. "What the hell?!"

In front of 'The Fastest Man Alive" was what he really could not comprehend.

"This is not possible," he heard Hal's voice to his left. The Flash turned around and saw that all of his teammates were still there. They were all still in the desert. He took a few steps back and took in what his mind was trying to deny.

In front of the heroes, the explosion seemed to just stop inches from where Wally was standing. A low roar, like hearing a tornado from a distance, filled the air.

"It stopped," Wonder Woman said, dumbfounded. None of them could understand what just happened.

"An explosion just doesn't stop," Shayera said, confused.

"Well, this one did," Wally said as he pointed to it with his right thumb. Suddenly, without warning, the explosion, imploded, creating a shockwave that knocked the heroes to the ground.

Coughing and trying to sit up, every one of the heroes were stunned with the recent events.

"Warning, rupture to local space has created a tear." Hal's ring called out in its monotonous voice. Sure enough, in front of the group of heroes was a literal tear hanging in the air. Light seemed to bend, just a little, around the tear. As soon as they took in what they saw, the tear shrank and disappeared. "Local space has been restored. Tear no longer a threat."

"This is going to take a lot of explaining when we get back to the Watchtower," Hal said, shaking his head. "At least we have that thing for evidence," he looked over to the large head, now with a large hole on the side left by the hatch.

"I agree with you on that, Hal," Superman said as they stood back up. Wonder Woman helped Shayera stand. Lifting a finger to his ear, Superman spoke. "Superman to Watchtower, come in Watchtower."

"I read you loud and clear Superman," a low gruff voice said over the ear communicator. "This is Batman. Is everyone okay down there?"

"We're all worse for wear, but all breathing. We need you to get a fix on our location and beam what we have left of the monster into one of the larger storage bays. We need to get started on finding out how to access the thing's data storage."

"An android," Batman questioned over the comm. "From what our computer says, its no design that has ever been recorded. A new creation from Dr. Ivo maybe," he said, not as a questioned, but more as Batman thinking out loud. "I'll call up Steel and Oracle to start working on processing the thing."

"Good," Superman agreed. "Meanwhile, beam everyone to Med Bay 1. Shayera has a broken leg with multiple breaks and Hal has a dislocated right shoulder and multiple fractures up and down his right arm. Wonder Woman and I need several wounds cleaned and dressed as well."

"But why do I need," The Flash began to say as a bluish white light glowed around each team member. His voice cut off by the sudden teleportation of him and his teammates to the Watchtower.

Several minutes later, as the wind picked up dust in the Mohave Desert, a sudden explosion occurred with nothing around to cause one. In the air around where the tear had been, a searing white light tore into the surrounding area. When all was done, and the light gone, where the tear had now completely disappeared, a single man stood.

With a curse under his breath, tears began to flow down his face. The man studied his surroundings. From what little plant life there was, he figured out where he was. He was in the Mohave Desert. And the nearest city was a good fifty miles away. With another curse under his breath, he turned north and to the east and began his long trek.


	2. A surprise

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Justice League characters or other DC character in any form or fashion. They are owned by their rightful creators and DC Comics. The character Max Colbern, his world, and Mendara Crystal are owned by me and will be appearing in forthcoming sci-fi novels. Enjoy.

Chapter Two

As the man walked through the desert, his shoulder blade length hair whipped around in the dry wind. The man was very familiar with his surroundings, having memorized most of the native plant life in the northern continent. It would be a harsh two day long slaughterhouse march towards civilization again, but his commanding figure, all 6'5" 310 lbs toned and wide shouldered body could withstand it. Though, once he got into town, he would have to stop off at the first restaurant and get something to eat and drink.

The first day was always the hardest on long desert hikes, the man though to himself. Even the threat of hallucinating could come onto one who did not have anything to drink in a desert, but the training he had gone through when he was younger had hardened and trained his body. Not being vulnerable to hallucinations would be too ignorant to think of on his part. But by his calculations, what he saw on the horizon was not possible. But as the morning grew on, the hallucination did not falter. In fact, it grew in detail and sound. By midday, sure enough, he had walked up to a highway just out side a major city.

"What the hell," the man asked himself. "What the hell is a city doing here? I've been everywhere in this part of the country. This city shouldn't exist." He looked around to make sure where he was. He noticed that things were different from what he recognized. The man shook his head, trying to clear his confusion. "Okay," he said as he took in a breath, "let's just go in and see what's there. Hopefully someone will be able to help me out."

And yet, the city did exist. What the man did not see, though, was a road sign a few hundred feet behind him greeting every motorist on the road:

"Welcome to Central City

Home of The Flash!!!"

Following the highway into the bustling city, he kept an eye out for a place that he could get something to eat for as little as possible. His wallet only held onto three pieces of paper, each one of them a twenty dollar bill. He opened a flap and looked at the picture of his wife. His heart ached from being taken away from her. He had been through so many trials and managed to survive. His family was what kept him going.

No matter what, he would find his way back to his family. But first, he needed something to eat.

"Growl!" he stomach called out. The man looked around where he was. The people on the sidewalk near him stopped and looked at him, clearly hearing the massive complaint from his stomach.

"Sorry about that," he apologized to everyone with an embarrassed smile. The people just seemed to shrug it off and went about what they were doing as if hearing something like that was normal. What the man did not know was something like that was just close to being normal.

Walking further down the crowded sidewalk, the man finally found a place to eat. It seemed okay, an all you can eat "Chinese Buffet House." It was a plain name, but it suited his needs. And the price was great, only $6.99. He wished it was cheaper, but he could not beg now. He walked up to the door, and to his luck, they were open with not too many people. Paying the clerk at the register with one of his twenties, he was glad that this city that should not be here took cash. Not many places he knew of took cash any more. Pocketing the change, he walked over to the buffet and began to fill the first of many plates towering with food.

"Man, that thing had such easy encryption," the Flash said to himself as he ran into town. For some reason the Watchtower's teleporter beamed him three miles outside the northern part of Central City. It did not annoy him that much, seeing as it only took him a few seconds to reach town on his slow pace. "And the information it held. I wonder why it didn't hold any information about the Justice League? For that matter, about any meta-human at all. The memory held so much about Earth, but nothing about its heroes. That's going to keep Bats occupied for the next few days," Wally said with a smirk. He knew that Batman hated situations where they go against a robot or android, managed to get their brain, and find out why they were attacking people. Every one of the manic creations had at least little information about the Justice League, but this thing did not have anything at all. The memory contained so much information about everything, but nothing about even the slightest meta in the populace. "Well, time to get something from home to I have something to where when I get back to the family. Good ol' Central City. God I love this town."

Out on the corner of Main Street and Elm, people were going about their busy day as usual. The cool air of late spring kept people cool as they went about their day.

_BA-BOOOOM!!_

An explosion inside Central City National Bank suddenly rocked the calm day. The explosion shatter storefront windows for a few hundred feet. Screams began filling the air as people ran from the explosion.

Wally, finally deciding on an outfit, heard the explosion. Quickly making it out onto his porch outside his bedroom, he saw the smoke coming from just a few blocks away.

"This week just does not want to be quiet," he said to himself. With a quick reflex, he was off running down the side of his building and out onto the street towards the explosion.

The man sat there at his table, finally full after taking in twelve large plates full of food. The family who owned and worked the restaurant all stood in various places around the buffet. They had watched the man walk in and pile on tall amounts of food on each plate and began to furiously attack the food, downing every single scrap of food. They had only seen one other person do that. But this man was too large to be The Flash. Bowing to the elder woman at the register, the man thanked her in a traditional Chinese manner, which took her off guard. He even spoke fluent Mandarin without any western accent.

Taking a toothpick from a small dispenser in front of the register, he began to pick his teeth as he headed to the door. But before he got two steps from the register, his ears were tortured with the sound of an explosion from across the street. Immediately following the explosion was the all common shower of shattered glass. The man simply stood there with his eyes closed as he was bombarded with so many small projectiles.

"This city just got interesting," he said as he opened the glassless glass door.

Outside, people were running everywhere and screaming, trying to get away from the terror. Smoke from the explosion covered most of the front of the bank and the street. Walking against the tide of people, the man made his way towards the curiosity. It was not often he heard of someone blowing up a bank, too cliché of a movie scene. But this place was different since he arrived the previous day. But then, what he saw coming out of the bank was an impossibility to his mind. He stood stock still on the now empty sidewalk, just opposite of the bank. The toothpick that was hanging from his mouth dropped to the pavement. This city just got extrememly interesting to the man now.

"Me hate explosions," a pale skinned creature said as he carried the bank's vault on his shoulders. The creature was dressed in a dirty blue uniform with dark red boots and shorts, a crimson cape hung loosely from his shoulders. "They make Bizarro sad," Bizarro said with a twisted grin, showing off his yellowed teeth.

"I hate being around these lower evolved species," a low growl of a voice came from within the smoke and dust of the bank. "But they do have their uses when the time is right." The owner of the voice stepped out of the dirt cloud. His black fur was covered with dust. His massive size stood taller than any person in the city, but was still dwarfed by the vault his partner was carrying. Gorilla Grodd stood there for a second to check on his human shields, each one holding a gun to their throats. Atop Grodd's head was a lattice work of metal and wires that amplified his mind's powers. Surrounding him and Bizarro were the staff and many of he customers from the bank. "There is no way the Flash is going to hurt these pathetic creatures." A grin grew over the large gorilla's ugly face. Grodd shook himself for a moment to clean off some of the debris from his body.

The Flash stopped when he saw who caused the explosion. "Why did it have to be Grodd," he said with a bad taste in his mouth. "And what's worse is he has Bizarro with him. This is not going to be easy at all." As he was about to start off to confront the two super villains, he watched as a group of people walked out and around the two villains. Each one held a gun to their throat. But what Flash did not see was a tall man standing in awe across the street from the large group. "First, the guns," he said to himself.

The man stood there with an interested smirk. This scene was so familiar to him. But to see it actually happening in front of him, it was too good. He felt like a kid watching his favorite cartoon hero. Then, with a sudden red blur around the group, each person was relieved of their weapon.

"You'll have to do better than that, Grodd," a man dressed in a red body suit said from across the street from him. He knew who the man was, and seeing the speed at which he ran proved it.

"You think that I was threatening them to hold those weapons to their heads? That was merely the surface, Flash. I control any human I want," Grodd laughed towards the Crimson Runner. "Go take care of The Flash, my human shield," Grodd said as he pointed towards the Flash with his muscular arm. With that, the group of thirty or so people focused their sights on Flash. The large crowd swarmed towards the Flash. With ease, The Flash began simply knocking each one out in turn.

Fascinated at this, the man walked towards the vault carrying creature and the oversized gorilla. Seeing this, Grodd stared at the man with strong concentration; focusing his mind to add the man to the crowd The Flash was trying to take care of as easily as possible.

"What," Grodd said in confusion. "Why aren't you under my control?" The man looked over at The Flash and then back at Grodd. A smile grew over his face. "How dare you laugh at me, you inferior creature," Grodd yelled out in frustration. No human mind could withstand his mental bombardment. But this man just smiled and kept walking towards him. With a mighty roar, the large mass of Gorilla Grodd lunged towards the man.

"Oh no, that man's going to get killed," Wally said in horror as he knocked out another person. He could not escape this group in time to save him. "Run away man, Grodd's going to kill you," he yelled in earnest at the man.

Grodd leapt into the air and brought down both his massive arms in a hammer motion, intent on crushing the tall man.

Wally could not watch, the man was going to die. Looking away a second before Grodd's large fists came down on the man, Wally knocked out another person to his left.

"Too slow," Wally heard from Grodd's direction. Turning to look at Grodd, Wally saw that the man had managed to dodge the killing blow. What followed, only he could clearly comprehend to its fullest.

The speed at which Grodd struck was unlike anything a creature his size could manage. Grodd struck out at the man with quick and precise strikes, not wasting any movement. But the man dodged quicker than Grodd could strike. Grodd's anger grew and grew and not a single strike met its target. Grodd had even begun using all four of his limbs in the onslaught on the man. Still, the man dodged. Finishing up with the last of Grodd's mind controlled human shield, Wally stepped out of the mass of unconscious bodies. It almost felt like watching himself dodge Grodd's attacks. Wally was awe at the speed this man was moving. He looked at Grodd and saw that he had a new version of his brainwave amplifier over his head. That brought more questions to mind. Why was this stranger not affected by Grodd's device?

"Enough of this," Grodd roared out, breaking Flash out of his train of thought. With a one last massive punch, Grodd thrust his right arm forward, sure that this would hit home.

_Thump!_

"What the hell," Wally said in surprise. That was all that was heard as the man raised his right hand up and stopped the massive strike. Grodd reared back and threw out his left fist. It too was caught. With a simple motion, the man turned his hands away from each other. What followed was a series of snaps and tears, the sound of bones breaking and muscle tearing. The massive gorilla let out a terrible roar of pain. The shock of so many bones suddenly breaking caused Grodd to lose consciousness. His massive form fell forward, his arms sliding out to his sides.

The man just stood there, his head leaning to one side as if studying Grodd's unconscious body. The man had a smile… a simple smile.

"New man make Bizarro happy, you stay later," Bizarro said in his twisted backwards talk. Dropping the large vault behind him, Bizarro ran towards the man, his fist ready to strike.

"Get out of the way, he's going to kill you," Wally yelled at the stranger.

The man did not move. The man simply slid his hands into his pants pockets and stood there.

Then, with the force of an explosion, Bizarro's fist made contact with the stranger's face. The concussion sent Wally into the store behind him. Luckily, the glass was already gone due to the earlier explosion.

When Wally stood up, he was ready to see a headless body in front of Bizarro with what would remain of the man's head all over Bizarro's fist. He cursed at himself again. Another person killed no thanks to Bizarro.


	3. confusion

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Justice League characters or other DC character in any form or fashion. They are owned by their rightful creators and DC Comics. The character Max Colbern and Mendara Crystal are owned by me and will be appearing in a forthcoming sci-fi novel. Enjoy.

Chapter Three

Confusion

Standing there in front of Bizarro was the man that took down Grodd. What Wally saw next almost made him break into uncontrollable laughter. The man was not killed by the twisted backwards version of Wally's teammate Superman. Instead, what he saw was the man still standing there with a curious smile over his face. And sitting in front of him was the sight that almost broke Wally into a fit of laughter.

Sitting there, crying his eyes out and holding his right hand in his left, was Bizarro. Flash saw that the villain's hand was clearly broken in many places. Even his wrist could be at that.

"Bizarro really like strange man. Bizarro not seek revenge," Bizarro said in a fit of tears. He clumsily stood up and, forgetting about the vault, flew up into the sky and out of the city.

Wally walked towards the man as he watched Bizarro leave his city. The stranger stood there, still not moving.

"No offense, man, but that was way cool and way too stupid to take on Bizarro like that," Wally said as he walked up to the man.

"Excuse me," the man said as he closed his eyes, "but would you please point me to the nearest clothing store."

"Why," Wally asked. The man opened his eyes and lowered his head.

"To tell the honest truth, I was scared stiff when Bizarro began to charge at me, the man said with a glad tone. "All I could do was stand there and hope that I could take the hit. There was no way for me to move. Plus, I never seen him before, only saw him in the news." The man still just stood there, not able to move.

"Well, I haven't even seen Superman take a hit like that from Bizarro," Wally said patting the man on the back.

"Still, can you show me the nearest clothing store," the man said. To Wally, he almost sounded embarrassed. When he followed the man's gaze, he saw why he needed the nearest store.

The stranger had completely and embarrassingly wet himself.

"I understand, man," Wally said to him with assurance. "And don't worry, my treat for taking out Grodd."

"Thanks," The man said. "By the way, my name's Max, Max Colbern. Glad to meet you Flash," Max said as he held up his hand. Wally eagerly raised his and shook Max's hand.

Twenty minutes later, and a new set of boxers and pants, later, Wally and Max walked out of Dear's Clothing Store. Both of them were laughing at a joke Wally had just told Max about a Rabbi and a strange visit to a bar. Outside, police and firefighters were busy trying the clean up the mess. And standing amongst the group of officers and firemen was a tall figure wearing a red cape with his well known "S" shield on it.

"Flash, there you are," Superman called out as he noticed Wally and Max. The people of Coast City knew Wally West was the Flash, but Superman still called him by his hero name. "Why didn't you call me and tell me that Bizarro had resurfaced?" Though he usually held a polite smile on his face, Superman was annoyed and concerned for his friend.

"Superman," Wally called out with a smile. Within a split second, he was standing in front of Superman, clearing the two hundred feet in a blink. "Sorry, but things got weird mega fast."

"It wouldn't have taken that long for me to get here, you know," Superman scolded Wally. "Once I got word of Bizarro in your city, I rushed over here only to find Grodd lying face down on the street with both arms broken in several places, a mass of unconscious people, and the bank's vault just sitting in the middle of the street. I had just finished replacing the vault when I saw you walking out of that clothing store." Wally was feeling like a kid being scolded by his father now. By the time Superman finished with Wally, Max had walked up next to them. "And who might you be sir? An old friend of Wally's here?" Superman asked Max as he pointed to the Flash.

"No," Max said plainly to the Man of Steel. "We just met today."

"Really," Superman said as a matter-of-factly.

"Supes," Wally began with pride, "This is the man who was responsible for taking on Grodd and Bizarro single-handedly."

"Is that so," Superman said, a bit of confusion and surprise filled his voice. "Where were you during this," he asked Wally.

"I was busy taking care of the human shield Grodd had taken over. By the time I was finished with last person," Wally bragged about his new friend as he slung his right arm over Max's shoulders, "This guy here dodged every attack Grodd threw at him and then managed to catch each of his fists with his bare hands. And then, I don't know how he did it, but with a sudden short twist of his hands, Max broke both of Grodd's arms. That caused his to lose consciousness and the hold over anyone."

"Please, its nothing to brag about," Max said honestly. "I was scared stiff if you hadn't forgotten Flash," Max said with a bit of annoyance. "You see, that's why we were in the store. I kind of had an accident after I stopped and broke Bizarro's hand."

Superman understood quickly what Max meant by accident, but was stunned at the news of Bizarro's had breaking. "How was that possible," Superman thought to himself. This man was beginning to raise a lot of questions now, and too few answers to cover them all. With a quick adjustment to his sight, Superman began x-raying Max. What he saw as he scanned Max shocked him. When he reached Max's head, Superman actually took a step back, not believing what he was seeing.

"I take it you know Superman," Max said as he read Superman's expression. "You probably have about a million questions you want to ask me now, huh."

Superman did not answer Max. Raising a finger to his right ear, Superman spoke, "Superman to Watchtower."

"This is the Watchtower," J'onn answered with his calm Martian voice. "Go ahead Superman."

"I need you to beam the Flash and I up along with one civilian," Superman said, signifying Max as the civilian.

"Strange," J'onn said over the comm.

"What's wrong J'onn," Superman asked.

"I have a lock on you and Wally," J'onn said to Superman and Wally, "but there is something that is blocking the lock on the man you wish to teleport."

With that, Superman looked at Max. Even more questions began to surface. And for some reason, the man began to blush.

"Let me guess," Max began with a bit of a sheepish tone in his voice, "you can't get a lock on me right?" Superman nodded. More questions again. "Tell me, where is your Watchtower?"

"I thought everyone knew that," Wally asked with surprise. "Its common knowledge, the Justice League's Watchtower is on the moon." Wally pointed up to the sky with an outstretched arm. Up in the afternoon sky was the only thing in the sky, the pale white of a waning moon. Max looked up in astonishment. That was amazing. On his Earth, they had just started to send rockets of supplies for building labs on the moon. This new Earth had a full fledge watchtower build on the moon with medlabs, communications, and even teleportation systems. His mind began racing wiht ideas on what the station looked like. As if a nervous twitch, Max began to shift his weight from one foot to the other as he thought.

"How about this," Max said as he took his eyes off the moon and looked at Superman. "Have John,"

"That's J'onn," Wally corrected Max.

"Sorry, J'onn," Max said, correcting his error. "Have him teleport you up."

"Okay, we'll have a Javelin ship come down to pick you up," Superman said. "J'onn, get someone to pilot a Javelin down here to pick Max up. He'll be here at our present coordinates."

"Agreed, Superman," J'onn replied over the earpiece.

Max stood there with a smile as Superman and The Flash began to dematerialize in the teleport stream. Immediately, Max began concentrating on opening his own way to the Watchtower. Forming a sort of 'door to another plane of existance', Max stepped into the soft white light.

J'onn stood at the control panel to the teleporter.

"Agreed, Superman," he said over the comm. He quickly typed a few buttons on the control panel and began the teleport sequence. All ofa sudden, the red alarm and a computerized voice began signifying that there was an intruder invading the Watchtower. "Computer, what is the situation?"

"Spatial annomoly occurring on bridge to Watchtower," A soft female voice replied to the Martian.

"Can you pinpoint the location of this anomoly," J'onn asked. He turned to face the communication's panel to tell everyone to get to their stations and for reenforcemtns to the bridge. But before he even took two steps, a soft white tear began to form in mid-air. At first he thought the computer was confusing Dr. Fate again, but this did not look like the Onk that usually formed when he arrives. When the tear reached just a little taller than he, J'onn watched as a man stepped through.

"So this is-" before the man could finish, the sound of a grapling cord being fired sounded off behind him. The man looked down as a black cord began to wrap around his arms and mid section. With strength that amazed the man, he was suddenly pulled back and off his feet. J'onn stepped to the side to see Batman. He must have been hiding in the shadows again.

"Thank the Gods he was in the shadows," J'onn thought to himself. "But I told him he needed to stop. I will have to speak with him once this situation is handled.

"That took a little longer than before," Wally said to Superman when they were fully materialized on the teleportation pads below the main controls of the bridge.

"That's a bit impossible, Flash," Superman said as they began to walk off the platform. "Time does not pass. The trip is instantaneous. There's no-" Just then, Superman was cut off from what he was saying by the Watchtower's alarms. "Now who the hell is it this time," Superman said in annoyance. Wally looked at The Man of Steel. It was not often he heard Superman swear. Something must be really bothering him if he's swearing. With a push, Superman flew up to the controls where J'onn would be. Flash took off for the stairs. "What's the situ-" Superman began, but stopped. What he saw brought even more questions to mind. His head was beginning to hurt. When Superman reached the controls, he saw J'onn and Batman holding someone against the wall of the elevator shaft. Superman could not see who or what Batman and J'onn were restraining against the wall. "Who's that?" he asked out, not really asking anyone in general.

J'onn turned around to show who he and Batman were holding. Superman's eyes widened to see Max, bound up by Batman's grapling cord and forced up against the wall.

"What's going on," Wally asked as he stopped next to Superman. He saw the shocked expression on Superman's face and followed his gaze. What he saw shocked him as well. Being held up two feet off the floor was Max Colbern. "Now how the heck?"

"Sorry Wally," Max apologized to The Flash, "Sorry Superman. Thought I would meet you guys up here. I did not feel like taking a ship up through the atmosphere. Bad memories," Max said innocently and amazingly calm from the grip of Batman.

"Who is this man," Batman demanded with a slight growl.

"This is the man who helped me out down in Central City,' Wally informed Batman. "But how did you get here before us, Max?"

"Well," Max began to say, but was cut off by the release and landing back on his feet. Batman let Max down, but he still held him up against the wall, ready to fight incase Max were to struggle and put up a fight. Just then, as if a heard of animals were coming, many Leaguers began arriving, ready for a fight. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Shayera, The Atom, Supergirl, Captain Marvel, and another Green Lantern carrying the Huntress, Nightwing, Robin, and The Creeper, all who were ready for a fight. Down below, many more members of the Justice League were standing ready.

"What's going on J'onn," Wonder Woman demanded, her tall figure slowing to stop in front of Batman and Max. Wonder Woman turned and looked at the man Batman was holding. "Who is this?" she asked, walking towards Max. Though only a inch or two shorter than Max, Wonder Woman made him feel as if he were only those few inches in height. Her simple presense to him seemed regal at the least.

"May I answer the lady," Max asked Batman. He tried to ask politely, but Batman took it as if he were trying to smart off. With the slightest nod of his head, Batman agreed. But max knew he had to be careful what he was going to say. "Miss, my name is Max Colbern..." Max stopped for a second before he began to say what he wanted.

"Anything else," Batman said plainly, demanding in his own way.

With a slight bow, Max continued. "I am Max Colbern, a man who is not of this particular Earth."

"Interesting," Wonder Woman replied. "It seems you are polite and from what I gather, this might be a bit of a misunderstanding." Wonder Woman looked at Batman. "Can you take that off of him. If what I hear is correct, this man is a friend."

Batman stared at Wonder Woman with narrowed eyes. He was not particularly interested in letting a man who appears out of a spatial tear out of his sight or grasp. Batman untied the cord and let the rest fall to the floor. He was not liking this man. His mind immediately began thinking of ways to defend against Max.

"First," Max began as he stepped out of the coiled cord that use to be around his body, "I want to apologize to everyone about the way I 'appeared' here."

"And just how did you beat us up here," Superman asked, stepping towards Max. He wanted at least this question answered.

"You got here fast," Flash said, pointing out the obvious. "And coming from me, that is saying something."

Max looked around at all the new faces. He thought that he would at least be somewhat concerned or at least unnerved a little at the sight of all the people here on the moon. He looked around and took in everyone who was there. The only person he thought was strange at first was the man with yellowed skin wearing a red feathery thing over his shoulders. But it did not.

"Let me explain," Max began. "Yesturday morning, I was with my wife home. As about to surprise her with a gift, I suddenly find myself in the middle of the desert. I thought that I was originally on my Earth. But I began to sense that I was not. I started walking and, before I knew it, I came upon The Flash's hometown. the existance of that city proved to my disappointment that I was no longer anywhere near my home." When Max mentioned the desert, the eyes of Superman, Shayera, Hal, and Wonder Woman's widened at their realization. "And before I knew it, I needed to get something to eat."

"Wait," Hal said, walking up from the stairs. "Where exactly were you?"

"When I arrived, I was in the desert," Max said to him.

"Yes, and did you see anything out of the ordinary near you?" Hal asked him. Superman knew where this was heading. So did Wonder Woman and Shayera.

"Well," Max thought of the area around where he appeared. "There was a large crater about twenty feet away from where I was."

"I knew it," Hal said with understanding. "When that fusion power core exploded, the explosion itself stopped. Which, by all known means, can't happen. When it exploded, it cause a rip, or tear in our spatial reality."

"Say what?" Flash asked, completely lost.

"To say the least, when that explosion shrank in on itself, it acted as a needle, threading through our space and into Max's. He was so close to to the other end that the rebound, or when the tear seemed to seal up on our side, pulled him through."

"Kinda like one of those ol stage hooks from those cartoons," THe Creeper said in a forced sane tone. Streatching out onto the stage and pulling the bad act offstage."

"Exactly," Hal said. The Creeper gave out a creepy howl of a laugh and performed a joy filled flip.

"But that still does not answer how he was able to hold off Grodd and Bizarro by himself and then appear here," Superman said to everyone. This was news to just about everyone. Everyone began to talk amongst themselves at the feats Max had just accomplished. Wonder Woman looked at Max. There was not a scar on him. Questions began growing in her mind as well.

"The only way that I can explain thoroughly," Max said as he stepped towards Wonder Woman and Superman, "is to show you something first."

"And what is that," Batman said, breaking his long silence from behind Max.

"Superman found out when he x-rayed my body," Max said as he turned to Superman. Superman nodded, remembering what he saw.

"And what did he see, exactly," Batman demanded from Max.

"What I saw was something I can't even to begin to explain clearly," Superman said to everyone. He began rubbing his chin with his fingers, thinking. "The closest thing to describe what I saw what… he had some sort of shining crystalline circulating throughout his body." That brought forth even more murmuring amongst the League.

"This is most interesting," J'onn said as he walked up to Max. "It might explain why I am receiving nothing but garbled images and top layer thoughts from him." The Martian Manhunter studied Max and began thinking. "Such a curiosity. I would love to know more about you and this crystalline that is in your body, Max." Max was taken back a little by the closeness of the green man. Max looked into his eyes and saw that they shown red. They did not seem to be filled with anger or rage, but with wisdom and intellect. He had only heard about one person with red eyes. And those were filled with a rage that sent a shudder down Max's spine. The Martian saw this and tilted his head just slightly. "Are you cold?"

"No," Max reassured. "I just remembered a horrible memory." Max shook his head and gave out a sigh. "I know that you all have questions about me. And he," Max pointed back to Batman, "definitely wants to keep his eyes on me. I would not blame him. Even after things are explained, he'll still keep an eye on me."

"That is just Batman," Wally said from beside J'onn. By now, the alarm had been turned off and the League, besides a few that was still up standing around Max (mainly Wonder Woman, Hal, Wally, J'onn, Superman, and Batman.

Batman looked over at The Flash and gave him a cold stare, causing Wally to step back a step.

After walking through the station, and receiving stares as he was escorted by some of the most powerful of League members, the group finally reached a med-lab where they had the right instruments to quickly study Max.

"Is this thing safe," Max said from the top of a large fluid filled container. Max was standing only in a pair of skin tight shorts, his clothes neatly piled on a chair behind him. J'onn stood beside Max as he began to take some blood. "Ouch," Max said when the needle pierced his skin.

"And here I though that the needle would not penetrate your skin," J'onn said as he pondered about Max's reaction. "You are an interesting man, Max."

"I have been told that by many people," Max replied. J'onn nodded his head in acknowledgement and finished taking Max's blood. With the four vials of blood in hand, J'onn placed them on a tray sitting on a table next to him. Next to the tray was another tray covered in white circles.

"With these special electrodes," J'onn held one up for Max to see before placing it over his heart. "We will be able to help sink up with that detector over there." He pointed out a device that looked like a large laser weapon. "In combination with these, the detector, and the fluid in the tank," J'onn explained as he placed numerous electrodes over Max's body, "we will be able to scan into your body as if we were dissecting you layer by layer." This sounded terrible to Max. A look of worry covered his face.

"Don't worry, man," Wally said as he appeared at the base of the tank. He saw the worry on Max's face. "This thing is usually used to help heal badly injured League members. The thing's safe."

"Yes, it is," J'onn agreed with Wally. "And besides, seeing that this is your first time in the tank, there is no possible way that it will cause sterility," J'onn said with his back to Wally. He had a small smirk on his face.

"What," Wally yelled out in surprise. "I've been in that thing many times and this is the first time I've been heard of this thing possibly causing sterility!"

"Relax Flash," Batman said from the controls at the back of the med-lab. "J'onn was making a joke." Batman's voice was even and without emotion as he started up the systems to study Max.

Wally's mouth dropped open in shock. He looked up at the platform where Max and J'onn were and saw both of them smiling. Max was shaking his head and laughed. Just then, he had a bit of a good joke to pull.

J'onn finished placing the last electrode on Max's leg and picked up the vials of blood. With those in hand, he walked down the stairs and over to Batman's left to prepare two of the vials for analysis. Max was sitting at the edge of the tank when he had a smirk appear on his face.

"Wally, come up here, I got something to ask you," Max said as he stared down at his friend. Before he finished saying 'you', Wally was squatting next to Max.

"What's up,' Wally asked. Max jumped a little, still not use to how fast Wally could move.

"Has Batman ever been surprised or anything like that," Max asked, his feet moving around in the liquid inside the tank.

Wally thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, nothing surprises Bats."

Max's smirk grew to a mischievous grin. "Just stay in here and watch," Max said before placing a breathing mask over his face. Max looked down at J'onn and Batman. "I'm ready," he called down to them.

"All right," Batman answered. "Go ahead and get in.

An hour passed by as the computer was busy taking in data from Max's body. So much information was piling up as Max simply floated inside the tank.

"You know you can talk, Max" J'onn said as he prepared two slides with samples of Max's blood. Max had been silent and seemed to relax for the first time in two days.

"I know," Max said over the speakers inside the lab. There was a small microphone inside the breathing mask. J'onn handed one of the samples to Batman, who slid the sample under a microscope to his right. J'onn sat down with his sample and began to study the blood. "Hey Wally," Max called out. Wally was busy going over some of the data that the detector had acquired. Wally turned in his chair and faced Max.

"What's up," Wally replied, standing up from his chair. He stretched his body and then relaxed.

Max pointed over to Batman and J'onn. Both were concentrating on the microscopes in front of them. Max gave a wink to Wally, telling him to watch them both.

A few seconds later, both Batman and J'onn nearly jumped out of their chairs. Batman was ready to throw a batarang at the microscope. J'onn seemed to be at ease, though his morphing green skin betrayed his shock as ripples moved over this body. Batman and J'onn looked at each other. At that moment, they heard laughter. Turning around, both of them noticed Wally was on the floor holding his gut and Max was inside the tank doing the same thing. Max's laughter sounded out over the speakers in the lab.

"What did you do,' J'onn asked Max plainly. Before Max could say anything, Wonder Woman and Superman walked in to check up on their visitor.

"What's going on," Wonder Woman asked, trying to keep her calm as she saw Wally on the floor laughing.

"I don't know," Wally barely said clearly. "But whatever Max did, caused Batman and J'onn to jump out of their seats." Wally continued to laugh. He saw the glare that Batman was giving him, but he did not care. It was a sight that was once in a life time.

"So our new friend managed to surprise the calm and collected Batman," Superman said, more asking than stating. All Batman did was stand up straight and let his dark cape fall over him. Superman took that as the classic annoyed answer from Batman.

"What did you do Max," Wonder Woman asked.

Calming down for a moment to speak, Max took in a deep breath and let it out before speaking. "J'onn, can you turn on the view to the monitor please. J'onn reach down and pushed a button next to his microscope. "As you can see, that is my blood on those samples. Watch," Max said. What Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash saw next caused them to jump back a step.


	4. Explainations and a fear on the moon

On the oversized monitor above J'onn's and Batman's workstations, a split view of the two blood samples appeared. At first they looked like regular cells. What Max did next shocked them all. With a single thought, Max took control of the crystalline inside the cells and quickly rearranged them to spell:

"BOO!"

Each slide said the same word. Max was enjoying himself all too much. Inside the tank, Max began laughing again at everyone's reaction to what he did. Something so simple, and yet so complex to do.

"How are you accomplishing this," J'onn asked, not being spooked the second time. Both he and Batman stood still ready for what was coming while everyone else in the room gasp. "This is so similar to what I can accomplish with my own cells. Is that what you can do as well, Max?"

"What is it that you can do," Max asked J'onn.

"Well, I am by nature a shape shifter," J'onn said as he changed his appearance to one of his human forms. "I am able to take control of every cell in my body with my mind in order to help others." J'onn changed form over and over as if it were just as easy as breathing. For him it was.

"Interesting," Max said. He floated there for a moment, thinking. On the screen, the blood cells simulated a strange game of baseball. Wally thought it was kind of entertaining, and so did some of the others. But Batman was getting annoyed by it. "Hey, would you mind if I got out of the tank. I'm starting to feel like an exhibit in a traveling carnival."

J'onn stepped back up to the computer console and began pressing button.

"Go ahead and climb out. I think our computer have enough information on you for months of studying," J'onn said as he stood back up.

"Good," Max said as he formed his door behind himself and leaned back through. This action did not surprise them as much this time.

"The electrodes are still taking readings," Batman said plainly. He stepped up and watched the small monitor in front of him. The electrode readings were extremely interesting to him. "Fascinating," Batman said, interested in the new information.

"Where did you go," Hal called out, turning around to head up the stair to the top of the tank. Max appeared without warning, seemingly out of thin air, walking in from the lab door. Hal saw this was slightly impressed. Max had taken off all the electrodes from his legs and arms and was removing the last from his chest. Plus, he was clean, dry and had all his clothes on besides an unbuttoned shirt. In Max's right hand were all the electrodes that covered his body.

"Here you go J'onn," Max said when he stopped in front of the Martian. "There are a lot of things that I need to explain to you right now." Max had all of their attention. "What I have is called the Mendara Crystal. J'onn, could you please bring up the scans of my head?" J'onn nodded and brought images of the inside of Max's skull. "Inside my brain, during an accident in high school, is the Mendara. Due to a certain brain disorder, there was a strange gap between both hemispheres of my brain." An animation was brought up of what Max's brain must have resembled before the Mendara. As Max spoke, the animation changed. "During the accident, I was struck by a strange group of lightning bolts. Do ask how that was possible, I am even still trying to figure that one out. Anyway, the crystal grew and began to rewire some things in my head. Afterwards, I found out I was able to do things that were completely Unreal! Things that I could not explain happened. My intelligence grew. Well, my ability to concentrate was what really improved. And through the help of a sentient computer program that I unwittingly loaded onto my computer, I was able to train and find out what I was." Max looked at everyone. They were all listening intently. "But, there is something I should warn you about." With those words, Batman stood up from studying the information when Max had traveled out of the tank. "I did find out something that scares me."

"What's that," Wally asked.

"What I learned was something that terrifies me; almost cost me my life as well as my girlfriend's. And that cost was too high," Max said as he sat down in the chair J'onn was sitting in earlier. Max seemed drained to everyone. "What my friend told me, the sentient program, was that there was a cost to what I received. If I were at all, to ever access the full potential of the Mendara and use it to kill or use it for evil, I would be immediately sentenced to death."

"How is that possible," Hal asked, curious to what the answer might be.

"There is a sort of failsafe in the crystal," Max said. He turned around to the computer and began to furiously press buttons. On the large overhead monitor, a simple animation began to play. A stick man, with the name Max written above it, was walking. "When the failsafe is tripped," Max continued. Lines appeared and blinked, signifying the failsafe. Above the man, a strange whirlpool appeared above him. "A type of black hole forms. The only thing though, it is centered on me and will only focus on destroying me. Nothing else." With that said, the stick man was joined by stick figures of Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash. The 'Max' stickman was beginning to stretch towards the black hole. Soon enough, only the 'Max' stickman was sucked in by the black hole while everyone around him was fine.

"That's some failsafe," Hal said. "The worse punishment for a Green Lantern is to be striped of his title, and sent to prison for life, surrounded by all the beings they arrested."

"If only that were true for my case, uh," Max never caught the man's name.

"Sorry, Hal Jordan, Green Lantern," Hal said to Max.

"So how exactly can you do what you have done so far," Superman asked.

"The Mendara allows me to tap into the unused parts of my brain and allows me to do what I do," Max said as he looked at Superman. "It also adds in a certain ability that enhances ones self. Wait, that didn't come out right." Max placed his head in his hands. "In the past, there have been other's with the Mendara. Each being was able to enhance their one true calling. Say, if one were great at music, the Mendara would allow them to enhance those abilities thousands and thousands of times over. I knew of one being who's specialty was farming and growing things. When they received the Mendara, they were able to create grains that could go in any environment, grow food for starving people, create cures to sicknesses that previously would go uncured. The Mendara allows the mind to gain access to the creativeness that it lies dormant. It's the key that helps unlock the doors of otherwise shut doors. It is all based on the will of the being who has it." Hal's ears immediately perked up when he heard 'will'.

"What is your ability that is enhanced," Wonder Woman asked politely.

"That's the thing," Max said, turning to Wonder Woman. "When I received it, the program told me that I was not to have it for another three years. Something happened and I received it without knowing my ability or specialty. And the only thing that came to mind when he, the program, talked with me was that I had an overactive imagination."

"So taking in these factors," J'onn said, leaning up against the computer console with his arms crossed over his chest. "I am thinking that because you received the Mendara early, the space in between your brain's hemispheres, and your overactive imagination…" J'onn stopped for a moment to think. "Maybe the crystal grew into that void and fused both hemispheres, causing your abilities to be widespread and not to just one or two main abilities."


	5. Chapter 5

"Taxi," a man in a brown business suit white shirt and crimson tie called out from outside the Daily Planet. Behind him, as if no one really notices, a tall man appeared out from nothing. No one on the crowded sidewalk really gave it much thought. It happened as if it never did.

Standing tall with a long dark midnight blue overcoat, the man stopped and looked up at the Daily Planet building. With a smirk, hidden behind a scratchy black short beard that matched his dark shoulder length hair, the man turned and continued to walk down passed the Planet. This city was one that he was alien to. Never cautious about being in a city he had never been to, the tall man continued walking. Slipping his hands into his pants pockets, he exposed the expensive Italian white silk shirt and black silk tie. He looked close to a nobleman, but around this part of Metropolis, people really did not care. Too many rich people walked around this part of the city, unlike other part where they tend to only go through in locked speeding limos. The man began to whistle a short tune that popped into his mind. As he reached the other side of the street, the current of people walking the opposite direction merge with the people heading his direction. A teenager in a Met-U baseball cap and in clothes that looked two sizes too large for him noticed the man and saw that he looked like an easy pick. Lacking cash, he decided to pick the man. With a bump, the teen smoothly reached in between the overcoat and the man and snatched his wallet.

Smiling, the man stopped on the opposite side of the street. He reached back and felt for his wallet. It was gone.

"This day just got interesting," he said with a smirk. Turning around, the man began walking back across the busy intersection. Cars and trucks sounded their horns as they bore down on the man. One such semi could not stop in time. With a gentle jump, the man cleared the top of the semi in a crouch and landed just short of the sidewalk. Waiting for some sort of reaction from the people around him, he was disappointed and curious as to why no one gave him a second thought. He now wanted to try something, see how they would react to what he just thought up. Looking over the crowd, he spotted the teen three building down. He was quick, the man gave him that. Making his way through the crowd, as if slipping through greasy fingers, the man quickly made his way towards the boy.

"This guy better be loaded," the teen said to himself as he picked through the wallet. The wallet itself seemed to be out of place. Though the man he just robbed had expensive clothing, the wallet looked like something from Wal-Mart's bargain bin. Opening the main part of the wallet, he pulled out a wad of paper. Most of it was composed of folded foil paper. Tossing those to the sidewalk, he counted out the money he scored. For being a cheap wallet, the man kept a cool $1000 in a mix of tens and twenties. This brought a sparkle to the teen's eyes and a wide grin. He hadn't scored this much in a while.

"Excuse me," a voice said from behind the teen. With a tap on his shoulder, the boy turned around. The man that was there looked at the teen with a quizzical look and walked by. When he turned back around, the man he just robbed stood tall and had a commanding presence. "You have something of mine," the man said as he pointed to the money the teen was pocketing.

"I don't know what you talkin' about, man," the teen said with a sneer. "Move out of the way before you get a beating." Even the though the man was taller than him, the teen was use to roughing up people bigger than he.

Grabbing the teen by his shirt with his left hand, the man lifted him up to his eye level. The glare in the man's eyes shook something inside the teen. This did not deter the teen. Keeping him at the same height off the ground, the man stretched out his arm. The man's arm did not move as the boy hung there by his shirt. Showing the boy he meant business, he brought him back in close to him.

"Again, you have something of mine," the man said with a flat tone. The teen began to fumble his hand in his pocket.

"Here man, take it. I didn't mean nothing by it," the boy said, scared at what the man would do to him.

The man looked down at the boy's hands. He saw the money that was in his wallet in one hand and his wallet in the other.

"Where's the rest," the man said with a still flat tone. The boy's eyes grew wide. He had thrown the pieces of paper to the sidewalk. The man saw the fear in the teen's eyes. The papers really did not bother him. He simply gave a thought and the pieces of paper were in his left coat pocket. "Well?" The boy began to stutter and pointed back to the busy sidewalk. He could not see them anywhere through the busy crowd. The man shook his head and lowered his gaze. "Too bad, now you have to be punished."

"Go ahead and turn me in," the teen said with a bit of relief. He didn't mind staying in jail for a night.

The man picked up on the teen's thought and lifted his head. "Such a gullible boy," he said as he lifted the boy's chin with his right thumb and index finger. With a smooth motion, the man snapped the teen's neck. The look of surprise froze on the teen's face as the life left him. With a smirk, the man lifted the now lifeless body and threw it over his head and into traffic.

Screams sounded as people watched the teen's body sail into the air and smash into the windshield of a sedan. The car screeched to a halt, crashing its side into another car headed the opposite direction. The body rolled and sailed into the air again and crashed into the front grate of the semi that was behind the sedan. The truck too screeched to a halt, the body falling to the ground in a bloody mash. Blood soon began to pool around the body from the open wounds. The people began to panic, trying to figure out what just happened. The man stood there taking in the wonderful scene. From inside the sedan, two men were busy trying to figure out what happened. The passenger picked up a radio receiver and began to talk into it. While he did that, the driver smashed out the rest of his window and began to climb out. Lucky for him, he saw who threw the teen into traffic.

"Freeze," the officer yelled from the driver's side window. The sedan was an unmarked police car. "You're under arrest!"

The man looked at him and smiled. He raised his hands as if to surrender.

"You got me Johnny Law,' the man mocked the officer. People began to clear away from the man. Quickly pumping his arms up, two large weapons appeared from the sleeves of his overcoat. Catching them with his hands, he lowered them and pointed them at the officer. A split second later, a gunshot roared through the air. The officer shot the man. But he did not fall. The man's head jerked back and that was all the reaction the man gave. Bring his head back down, the officer saw that he had shot the man dead center on his forehead. "Ouch," the man mocked. "Do you know how much of a headache that's going to give me," the man said, the bullet smoothly fell from the wound. The wound itself healed over as the bullet fell to the sidewalk.

"Oh shit," the officer said in a panic. "Will, call in that we have a Meta here," he said to the other officer.

"Will do, Red," Officer William Conner said to his partner. His name was not really Red, it was Jason Derson. He got the name 'Red' from when he showed up to a police picnic completely sunburned and did not go away for almost two weeks.

"So you see," Max said as he and Superman walked down one of the many corridors to the Watchtower. "When I create the 'door,' as you put it, I have access to a space that is actually between picoseconds."

"So that's why it looks like nothing but light. It's just a bit slower than the movement of electrons." Superman replied. He was fascinated at the application that Max told him about. "Strangely, it sounds so much like tesseract technology."

Max's ears perked up when Superman mentioned tesseract technology. "Have you ever seen real tesseract technology?"

"Well, yes," Superman said as he returned a wave to Wonder Woman as she spoke with Shayera. Max looked at him, wanting to know. "I used to have a place I went to in order to think and to be alone for a little bit. It was my Fortress of Solitude up near the North Pole. Though there was an incident and it was destroyed. I managed to contain most of the 4th dimensional space from breaking apart."

"Sad to hear, I would have loved to have studied it," Max said with a shrug. "The pure science would have been like being offered the chance to go on a date with a Goddess."

"Well, she walked by," Superman said to Max, to point out a fact.

"Who? Wonder Woman," Max asked, curious.

"Yes," Superman said.

"Well, I just thought she was really beautiful, not a Goddess," Max said as he turned his head to see Wonder Woman and Shayera disappear around the corner. Superman looked at Max with a raised eyebrow. He had not heard someone say that Wonder Woman was 'just really beautiful' the way Max had said it. "I have my own Goddess back home."

"Really,"

"Well, to me she is," Max said. He reached for his wallet and pulled out a photograph of him and his girlfriend Rebecca. "This is my Goddess," Max showed the picture to Superman. "To me, she beats Wonder Woman hands down."

"Don't let her hear that," Superman joked. "She is very beautiful. You are a lucky man, Max."

"And I hope to marry her too, just haven't built the nerve to ask." Max slipped the photograph back into his wallet as they entered the control center, where he first appeared.

"Hey Superman," the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner said from the control seat. "You're just in time."

"Time for what," he asked Kyle as he and Max walked up.

"Just heard over the police scanner that there's some Meta terrorizing people. He's killed one already." As they watched, the madman fired two strange weapons at a police car. The car itself exploded, killing the two officers and three others in the car next to it. "Make that a few more," Kyle corrected. "And he's laughing," Kyle said, surprised and shocked.

"Ok, where," Superman asked, curious as to why Kyle sounded like it would interest him.

"Outside the Daily Planet," Kyle said, turning back around to pull up a visual of the scene. Superman jumped at the name.

"Why wasn't I notified about this earlier," Superman asked impatiently.

"What's going on," Max asked. He could not see the screen as Kyle and Superman blocked most of the view. All he saw was part of an explosion and a few people running by.

"Someone decided to kill someone in my city," Superman sounded pissed, yet looked like his regular calm self. "Get the teleport ready. I need to get down there now!"

"On it Big Blue," Kyle said as he punched up the activation codes for the teleport pad.

"Don't worry about doing that Green Lantern," Max said to him. Superman looked at him with a death glare. "I've got a quicker way there." With that said, Max put his hands together and proceeded to part them, opening a door. "How close to you want to be to the man?"

"On top of him," he said to Max. With that, Kyle stood staring at what Max was doing. Turning back to the monitor that showed the madman, Kyle saw a similar door opening ten feet from the man. Using his super speed, Superman ran into Max's door. Immediately after, he was standing in front of the madman. Kyle looked back and forth between Max and the monitor. Max gave a wave to Kyle and stepped through.

"Who are you," Superman asked the madman after blowing out the car fires. Superman floated a few feet off the ground and had his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ho-hoo," the tall man said as he lowered his weapons. "Never new this place had life-sized fairies. This is so the best day,"

"You've killed people," Superman pointed out. "You made a mistake doing that in my town." Max appeared behind a delivery truck and began to help people who were still trapped in their cars. He formed his door above a few of the people and moved it down, having them appear standing next to him. Max immediately ushered them away. He was grateful that he could help, though Superman probably did not see him walk through his door.

"Well, I guess I can add you too," the man said with a smile. He raised his weapons with lightning speed. If Superman had blinked, he would not have seen the man move. The man centered both weapons on Superman's chest and fired.

"Oh shit," Max said as he helped a woman to her husband inside a store down the street from the mayhem. The explosion from the weapons firing shocked Max. They sounded like cannons firing. Just then, he had a feeling wash over him. He was not scared; it was something that felt familiar yet foreign to him. Max could not explain clearly what he was feeling.

Superman just floated there. The two rounds were flattened against his chest. Superman picked each round off of his uniform and dropped them to the ground.

"Well shit on me," the man said with a smile. He was shocked his hand cannons did nothing to the man floating in front of him.

"I take it you're not from around here," Superman asked him as he floated down and stood two feet in front of the man. "Come quietly, I'm taking you in."

The man looked at Superman, raising his right eyebrow. "Oh really," he said with a smirk. The man tilted his head to the right and began to laugh. "Here's looking at you, Jackie," the man said. Without warning, the man threw out his fist. The impact shattered windows all around them as Superman was sent flying through the building behind him.

"Holy shit," Kyle yelled out. "Emergency, Superman needs help," he said into a microphone. Soon after, Wonder Woman, Batman, and The Flash appeared behind Kyle.

"What's up," The Flash asked.

"Superman went down to Metropolis to confront this madman shooting up the place. He's already killed half a dozen people." Kyle, while he spoke, readied the teleport pad. "Max went down with him to help. He's gotten most everybody out of the wrecked cars and to safety."

"What," Batman called out. "That man is down there?" Batman glared at Kyle with narrow white eyes.

"He's the one that took Superman down there using whatever he used to teleport there."

"He used his door, the same thing that he used during the testing," Batman said as he finished the commands for the teleport pad. "We're going down there now," Batman said as he finished typing in the last codes. He, Wonder Woman, and The Flash all made there way to the pads. With a blue flash, they were gone.

Max quickly made his way to one of the few people he had not reached yet. He told the man to calm down and that he was going to experience something weird. Before the man could say anything, Max quickly lowered his door over the man. The man appeared next to Max. His right leg was broken and Max quickly reached for the man's arm. Placing his weight on Max, the man fainted. Max cursed to himself and picked the man up and ran him down to where he took the woman. Before he made it one building away, Max was knocked down from a shockwave. He twisted his body so the man fell on top of him. The weight almost knocked the wind out of him. Looking up, he watched as a large part of the building falling down directly over him. With a quick thought, Max formed a door underneath him and the unconscious man. They made it through a moment before the rubble crashed down to the ground.

Max appeared in a coffee shop a mile away from the action. People were shocked at the sudden appearance of Max and the man.

"This man needs immediate medical help," he said as he laid him down on a bench along the wall. "I need to go back," and before anyone could answer Max, he opened his door and stepped through.


	6. Chapter 6

"What the hell," the man said as he danced around holding his hand he had just used to hit Superman. "That hurt more than sticking my hand in a compressor. That reminds me, I need a new one." The man was enjoying this new city. He did not care about anyone around him; they were just play toys to him and his sick fun. The man began to laugh at the pain. He enjoyed it so much. "Wonder where that spandex jockey went to," he said as he gazed across the street. The top four floors of the building Superman went through were slowly collapsing. Through the thinning smoke, he noticed that the people who were using it as a hiding place were still inside. With a smile, he lifted both his weapons and smashed them together. The metal from both weapons began to merge into one another, forming a more powerful weapon. The grey metal lengthened and formed what resembled a modified AT-4 rocket launcher. Placing the new weapon on his should, he aimed and fired. Closing his eyes from the rockets flames, he waited for the explosion.

None came.

"What the hell? Don't tell me that thing was a dud," he asked himself and stared into the barrel. Absentmindedly, he pressed the firing button and a second rocket launched into his face.

Max left his door running. Down the street, he saw the crazy man aiming a strange rocket launcher at a building across the street. Max had to get closer in order to form a door in order to intercept the rocket. Picking up his already fast pace, jumped up onto a car nearby and began to jump from vehicle to vehicle.

Just then, it seemed as if time began to literally slow down. Calculating the angle the man was firing, Max reached out and began to open a door, hoping he was right. Jumping up off the roof of a pickup truck, Max watched the rocket soaring into the air and towards his door. Landing on the hood of a sedan, he saw that the door was off to the left of the rocket by a foot. With as much effort as he could, Max mentally pushed the door two feet to the right.

Jumping again, he landed behind another pickup, glad that the rocket entered safely into his door. Breathing heavily, he stood up with a small smile, glad that the building was safe… for now. He glanced down and saw that the people inside the first floor were staring at Max in a mixture of gratitude and fear. He was someone who showed up shortly after this madman and was using some weird trick. Though they watched as he removed people safely from their vehicles, how did they know that he was a good guy?

With a flash of blue light from teleporting, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash appeared near the building. And not a split second later, an explosion erupted from behind max in the direction of the mad man.

"Did that guy just fire a rocket point blank into his own face," The Flash asked. The three heroes appeared facing the mad man. They saw his looking down his weapon just before the explosion.

"Great Hera," Wonder Woman said in shock. "He just turned his own weapon on himself."

"I doubt he's dead," Batman said in his haunted tone. "A man capable to punch Superman through a building has to have skin that is dense enough to withstand Superman's own skin." Sure enough, as the smoke cleared from across the street, the four saw the man waving a hand in front of his face. The man was coughing, which proved Batman right. The man was tough. Batman turned to the small group. Flash, go find Superman and see if he needs any help. Wonder Woman, try to see if you can talk some sense into the man. I'm going to try and see if there are any more people here." Both his teammates nodded. Flash sped and Wonder Woman kicked off into the air and over towards the mad man.

"There's no need," Max said to Batman. "Already cleared ever car on the street."

"And what sick thought told you to come down here," Batman scolded Max. Batman walked up to him and stopped a foot away from Max. Both men stared at each other, hard. Max was not use to someone being up this close to his face.

"If not, many more people would be dead," Max argued. "And if you don't mind getting out of my face, it would be much appreciated."

Batman did not move. His mind was calculating about Max. They still did not know much about him, besides what Max had shown them.

Suddenly, the ground shook, causing Batman to turn around and Max to step to one side. Both of them just stared, Max with his eyes wide and Batman with his eyes narrowed.

"That was interesting," the man coughed out as he waved the smoke from in front of his face. "I got to remember to do that again later." The man began to cough and laugh at the same time.

"Mister, you are under arrest," Wonder Woman said as she landed ten feet from the man.

"Woh Nelly," the man said in surprise. He began grinning as he took in the beauty of Wonder Woman. "What lottery did I win to get a visit from you?"

"I would never put myself up for a prize," Wonder Woman said. She started cautiously walking towards the man.

"Good, then I can do whatever I want to that sweet ass of yours, toots," the man vulgarly provoked her. Wonder Woman glared at him in anger. "Ooo, I love my bitches when their mad," the man laughed. He threw his weapon over his left should. When it landed, it fell to peaces. Wonder Woman, provoked from the last statement, jumped at the man, her fist raised. "Lucy, time for you to go to bed," the man taunted. With a flash sidestep, the man reached forward. Taking a hold of Wonder Woman's face, the man forced Wonder Woman backwards, using her own momentum against her. With a thunderous impact, the man drove the back of Wonder Woman's head into the street, knocking her out.

The man stood up and laughed at the motionless Wonder Woman.

"Man, and I was planning on taking her home to meet the misses too," the man joked with his own sick humor.

Batman heard the man. "The man sounds like The Joker," Batman said aloud to himself." Both he and Max were still standing across the street.

When the man calmed his laughing fit, he stared across the street at Batman and Max.

"What the hell is it with all these costumed jerk-offs," he said loud enough for Batman to hear. "Did I miss some memo about Halloween coming early this year or something?" The man centered his gaze on Batman. "Well," he said as he opened his arms, welcoming the next challenger.

Batman stood there for a moment, taking in his new opponent. The man was fast enough to dodge Wonder Woman and his reflexes were something to admire, somewhat. His strength was on par with Superman, but he could have just caught the Boy Scout off guard. He has some type of mental capacity to telekinetically manipulate weapons, maybe metal as well, to form a more powerful weapon. Though that does take him time to perform the manipulation. Batman could not tell if there are any other weapons under his overcoat. What Batman did see there was no room to hid one, though there still was a possibility. Batman had to be cautious.

Moving his arms around under his cape, enough to not cause any outward ripples, the Dark Knight collected four explosive bat-a-rangs from his belt. With the reflexes he acquired throughout his life of training and fighting, Batman threw all four, two in each hand.

Max stood by watching Batman. He had a feeling that he was up to something. Superman was somewhere behind them with Flash searching for him. And Wonder Woman was out cold a few feet in front of the maniac. He had heard from Superman that Batman was the world's greatest detective. Superman even admitted that Batman had bested him more than a few times in a fight. Max began to think. Just then, he watched as four objects flew from Batman's hands.

That's it!

Quickly thinking, Max formed a door in front of two of the objects narrow enough so only they would pass through. When the other two reached the maniac, one exploded on impact and another was snatched out of the air. All the man did was laugh through the smoke. Max glanced over at Batman. He had the look of curiosity mixed with frustration and confusion. Batman, being the detective he was, turned his head to look at Max. Max could tell he knew.

"What? And this one uses exploding toys," the man said with a giggle. The bat-a-rang he caught was crushed in his hand as he squeezed. The bat-a-rang exploded out the sides of his hand. "You have got to be jerkin my gherkin." The man laughed as he wiped the debris in his hand off on his coat. "You're next," the man said with a smile. Crouching, the man pushed off and ran towards Batman. Batman readied himself in a fighting stance. He was not going to let this man go.

The mad man jumped onto the first car and hoped across towards Max and Batman. The man had Batman in his sights and was charging like a runaway train. When the man reached the closest vehicle, he jumped up with an insane smile on his face a laugh that sounded too abnormal.

Just then, with the man in mid air, two explosions erupted in front of the man, ripping his shirt and tie to shreds and pushing the man back across the street into the side of the Daily Planet's building. He did not go completely through the wall, only enough to leave a good impression.

Batman looked over at Max with a questioning look that sent chills down Max's spine. Just then, Max got another idea from Batman. Turning back to the mad man, Max stood with the same fighting stance Batman was in earlier. Max himself had trained long hours in the space he had mentioned to Superman, his 'between'. Max gained an idea that he wanted to try. With a quick thrust, Max punched forward. Batman watched on as the front part of his arm disappeared. Glancing across the street, he watched as the man's head jerked up. With punch after punch, Batman watched on with battle-ready stance as Max seamed to perform a complex set of a mixture of martial arts. Max seemed to be putting on a display, but in reality, he was fighting the man across the street.

Batman watched as the man jerked and bent as strike after strike connected with the man.

The Flash and Superman super-sped to a halt near Batman while Max performed the puzzling display.

"What the heck is Max doing," The Flash asked as he scratched the back of his head. With a small grunt, Batman stood up straight and turned to face the direction of the mad man. Flash and Superman both looked across the street and saw the man trying to fight an invisible enemy.

"It's called 'The Spirit Walking with Thistle'," Max said as he continued. He tried to hide the beginnings of his exhaustion. "Very complex."

"How are you reaching over there," Flash asked, still confused.

"He's using his 'door' ability," Batman said, studying Max's technique and the blows the mad man was receiving.

"Never heard of it," Wally said as he and the others watched on as Max fought.

"Of course not," Max said as he started to show signs of tiring. "This style contains 328 different moves that are timed very precisely. So far I have only been able to reach 315 moves before I exhaust myself."

"What about the other 13," Batman asked, wondering why Max could not complete the set of movements.

"The last 13 involve moves that begin the body's shutdown," Max said as he neared his 300th move.

"So, knocking him out isn't all bad," Wally said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"He means killing," Batman said plainly.

"What," Wally yelled in surprise.

"And remember what i told you," Max said at move 308. "I can not kill for any senseless reason. If I do, I die as well."

As Max spoke with Batman, Flash and Superman, he did not realize that the last dozen or so stikes were being dodged. The mad man he was fighting managed to adapt to the moves. He had been simply smacking the stikes with his hands. With Max's 314th stike, the mad man reached for Max's fist. Getting a firm hold around Max's wrist, the mad man pulled. With a gut renching laugh, the man pulled Max through the small door. Realizing this, with a simple thought, Max expanded the 'door' and was pulled through safely (so to speak). The mad man pulled Max through and lifted Max by the arm. Hanging there in front of the mad man, Max could not block anything from this proximity. He was too close to the man. Seeing this, Batman, Flash, and Superman all charged at the man.

The heroes charged the mad man who was tearing up the small part of the city in front of the Daily Planet. In the floors above, reports and photographers and cameramen were having a field day with the new comer fighting the mad man. From one of the windows of the tenth floor, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen watched on as the man who appeared with Superman seemed to take control. But within seconds, the mad man had the upper hand once again. Jimmy, with camera raised, was taking non-stop photos of the brawling. He would have preferred to be streetside, but no one was allowed in the bottom four floors for safety reasons.

"You better get me a page one photo, Jimmy," Lois told her friend of many years. "This new guy and that killer are going to be news."

"I'm trying Lois," Jimmy said as he rushed from window to window, trying his best to get a decent angle on the fighting.

"Tell me one thing," the mad man began to ask Max as he held him up by his left arm. The man looked directly into Max's eyes with his ghostly eyes, "What does a building taste like?" Max was confused by the question. But a split moment before either Superman or the Flash could reach Max, the mad man turned and threw Max face first up into the air at an angle towards the Daily Planet.

"I think this guy's a goner," Jimmy said as he and everyone else watched on.

Max realized all too soon what the man meant. Being thrown hard enough to dislocate his shoulder, he was about to feel the same way he did the day he received the Mendara Crystal. he had miraculously survived being shot through three walls of his high school, but at the speed he was going, he was going to be thrown through many more. With a milisecond reaction, Max tried to put something of a barrier in between him and the building, but he was too late.

With striking impact, the man had thrown Max at a high angle. Max was angled for the fourth floor. Partially lucky, he was aimed at a window. With an explosion of glass, Max entered the legendary Daily Planet building the hard way.

The mad man laughed at the explosion of glass. But he had no time to enjoy his latest kill. With the speed of only which only few people could meet, Superman and Flash both began fighting the mad man. With each punch, the Flash also threw a curse at the man for killing a friend. Though they had only known Max for a short time, Wally felt like he had known Max for years. Each of them had so much in common, they seemed almost like long lost brothers. Brothers from different mothers. Superman, not caring for the language Wally was dishing out, did not really care much at the moment. They had to contain this monster. With both hands, Superman swung his hands in an upper hammer punch. Contacting the killer's chin, the man was sent sailing down the street into stopped vehicles. Two of the gas tanks from the vehicles explosed from the impact. With creeking metal and the roaring of fires along the street, a hideous laugh began once more.

"Holy crap in a cradle," the killer said from the mess of vehicles, flames and smoke. "When I paid The Broker for a good fight, he gave me just that."

"What are you talking about," Superman yelled at the man. He was dumbfounded at what the man just said. "You paid to fight here?"

"Hell yea," the man said as he limped through the the smoke and flames. He emerged from the smoke waving his right hand in front of his face to try to clear the smoke away quicker. "The Broker has really earned his money this time. Those last few worlds didn't have the amount of resistance. Those worlds were too boring. And when this world came across his brokerage, I was the first one to grab it. Too bad too. He was hoping to have this small planet as a long term investment too. But hey, you can't always get what you, but I sure as hell get what I need!" The man let out another insane laugh as he straighten himself. The limp was still evident, but not as much as before.

"Who is this broker," Batman demanded.

"Someone you won't have to worry your pretty little pointy head over, junior," he replied with a simple smile.

Lois strained to hear what the mad man was saying. She thought she had heard 'broker' and and something about earning his money. When this was all over, she would have to ask her husband what the man was saying. Of course, Clark Kent (also known as Superman) would probably get the scoop in after the fight was over. But Lios would poke and prod her way into Clark letting her get the story. She felt so sorry for the man that was putting up a fight against the killer. He was holding him with his strange fighting skills. But after the man was thrown through into the fourth floor window, she could hear crashing that usually would come from when Superman was sent through a building. The man was certainly dead. He could not have survived anything that bad. When the crashing ended, Lois guesstimated that he was somewhere between the seventh and nineth floor. She would not want to see those crime scene photos. There would be parts of the man on all of those floors. She was surprised that the man was able to make it through close to five floors, though not fully intact. Suddenly, her mind played a trick on her as she remembered one of Killer Croc's crime scenes on his last visit to Metropolis. The creature's layer was strewn with body parts. Somehow, the Joker and created a special Joker serum for Killer Croc alone. There were too many families that were struck with grief. But between the good will of the Daily Planet and Gotham's own billionare playboy, Bruce Wayne, the families were able to pull themselves back together. She remembered it as if it happened a few weeks ago, when in reality, it happened two years ago. Batman was able to subdue Killer Croc, with help from Superman, but not in time before those lives were taken. Lios even remembered the bite marks and claw tears all over Superman's uniform when he returned home. She could have sworn she saw the remnants of bite marks on Clark's skin.

Lois was soon knocked back to the present as the floor under her seemed to heave with a crash. Lios leaned out the window. Superman, the Flash, and Batman were all still fighting the killer down on the street. Though a few vehicles were now bound for the scrapyard, they did not cause the sudden shift.

"What the hell," one of the female temps said as she glanced down at the floor. Lios turned her head and leaned back in. As she did, the floor shifted again. Again, another rumbling shift occurred.

Without warning, an earsplitting monsterous roar erupted from inside the Daily Planet.

J'onn, along with Shayera, studied the screens inside the Monitor Womb of the Watchtower. With help from Oracle, the League's super-hacker, they had eyes on the street through the many security cameras throughout Metropolis. With added help of hidden cameras owned by the Justice League, J'onn had eyes-on over the entire battle. Shayera was watching the fight as she searched theor database for anything related to any being known as The Broker.

"That's it," Shayera said as she and J'onn watched Max being thrown into the Daily Planet Building. "There is no way that guy could have survived that." Shayera was interested with this new stranger that appeared so recently. And now they had this monster of a mad man destroying property and fighting off Superman and the Flash. She was amazed how Max was able to fight. It was a very interesting style. But when the mad man took a hold of Max through one of his 'doors', he was in trouble. "What do you think J'onn," she asked J'onn. He was up in the main control chair ten feet above her. He was watching the fight as well. But when Max was thrown into the building, he began to get a head ache. When he did not answer her right away, she turned her attention away from the monitor in front of her. "J'onn, what do you-," she began but stopped as she watched J'onn rub his eyes with his fingers. "Are you all right?"

"I... don't know, Shayera," he answered in a strained calm tone. "Suddenly I just have a headache."

"Well, everyone gets one now and then," Shayera said as she turned her chair around to get a better look at the martian.

"I don't," he said as his brain began to throb more. He took in a deep breath as a sharp pain went through his mind. "I... don't know what this is. Due to my shape changing ability, I do not get headaches. But for some rea-"

Before J'onn could finish his sentence, an exploion of pain erupted inside the Martian's mind. The pain forced his head back. Struggling in the monitor seat, J'onn fought the pain. But due to the struggling, he pushed himself out of the chair, sending him crashing down to the floor.

"J'onn," Shayera called out in alarm. She shot up from her seat and rushed over to her friend. J'onn's body twisted and contorted to the pain. She knelt down next to J'onn and tried to cradle his head, which kept moving due to his martian makeup. Shayera was about to yell out for help when, over the speakers of the Monitor Womb, a monstrous frightening roar bellowed from Metropolis.

"What the hell is going on," Hal asked as he barged into the room. He was walking by when he heard Shayera yell for J'onn.

"I don't know," Shayera answered Hal. "One moment we were watching the fighting in Metropolis and watched Max get thrown into the side of the Daily Planet when J'onn began to have a sudden headache. Then, he started to struggle in his chair and fell to the floor." She did not look up at Hal as she spoke. Her attention was all on J'onn. When she looked up, Hal's eyes were wide and his mouth open in disbelief.

"Dear God," Hal said in shock. "What the hell is that?"

Shayera saw that Hal was looking at the screen just to the right of her station. She turned around and looked at the monitor.

"Oh no," was all she could say.

"Danger," a voice called out from Hal's hand. "Major psionic disruptions being registered. Contacting Green Lantern Corps Headquarters for assistance and containment," the ring said to Hal. "Estimated response, 2 hours 12 minutes." Hal seemed to take it in, but his main focus was on what was happening in Metropolis.

"No, not another one," Jimmy said as he turned his head towards the floor, his camera still angled down at the fight. "They're having a hard enough time with this guy."

Jimmy Olsen, best buddy to Superman and best friend to Lois Lane and Clark Kent, turned his sights back to his camera and the action outside. Quickly switching to another 4 Gig flashdrive for his camera, he leaned back out the window he had finally found to have the right angle for the fight. With a rolling rumble and crashing, like that of thunder rolling in to signal an oncoming storm, the floor beneath everone's feet began to shake. With his steady hands, Jimmy Olsen, the skilled photographer he was, took in something that scared him.

The rumbling below the employees of the Daily Planet was only the precursor to what happened next. With an explosion of rubble and what use to be desks, chairs, windows, and personal items, the side of the Daily Planet two floors down from Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen erupted out onto the street. Jimmy's camera caught all of it.

"What the hell now," The Flash said in frustration. From the fighting streetside, the fighters did not hear the monstrous roar. They did not need anything else to be going on now. The Flash stopped fifty feet from the mad man they were trying to subdue. They were not succeeding. The mad man seemed to have the strength of Superman and yet the sanity of The Joker and the simple bloodlust of Killer Croc. The Flash watched as the side of one of the floors to the Daily Planet exploded outward and out onto the street. Desks and chairs apleanty fell to the destruction on the street. Within the pulverized cement and other building materials, The Flash could have sworn he saw another monster to add to this chaos. All he could see was a shadowy figure, but what he saw sent cold chills up his spine. "Batman, we got trouble," The Flash said as he watched the figure land on a delivery truck. The front of the truck was thrust upward from the impact.

"What is it now, Wally," Batman said as he released another four explosive Bar-a-Rangs at the mad man. When Batman turned around, he watched as the front of the truck lifted upwards. He quickly ran and jumped onto the nearest somewhat intact vehicle to get a better view of what was heading their way.

What Batman saw scared even him. He could not explain such a deep primal need to run. Never has he felt something like now.

Through the years he had fought with the Justice League and the creatures they encountered, the feeling he was receiving from what he now saw seemed almost unreal. His senses were not easily fooled, but they were telling him to run. Something in his mind was telling him to run to safety. Get away now. Batman never had felt this feeling. All Batman and The Flash could do was stand there and stare at what they saw coming towards them.

"Wonder Woman," Wally remembered quickly. "Oh no, Wonder Woman is still unconscious over there." The Flash pointed in the direction of the monstrous creature that was walking towards them through the cloud of debris and smoke. "She's still over there!"

Before either man could move, the huge creature that erupted from the Daily Planet made its way out of the smoke. Standing a good ten feet tall, the creature's legs resembled the hind quarters of any four legged mammal as if it stood on its two back legs. But these legs were not in any sense mammalian. They were reptilian green, with five large claws on each large foot. The torso was barreled, the green reptilian scaly skin merging with that of a man. The arms and hands of the creature were of the same scaly green but were more human in shape. The muscular build gave the creature a sense of foreboding. Behind, or more specifically on its back, was a large set of wings. Each wing flexed as it tried to shake off any debris that landed on them. The green of the skin gave way to a crimson over one of the wings. The other wing was covered in pitch black feathers The creature's face seemed to contort, as if it were changing. Over the shoulders were what looked like torn fabric that use to belong to a shirt. And around the waist was what looked like the remains of a pair of dirty pants.

"Oh dear God no," The Flash gasped. In the arms of the creature lay the unconscious body of Wonder Woman. The creature carried her as if she were a precious sleeping baby. The monster stomped its way towards The Dark Knight and The Flash. Batman stood there for a moment in a fighting stance, but then stood up straight, allowing his cape to cover his body. The Flash stood there ready to fight the creature in order to rescue Wonder Woman. "Put her-" Flash began in forced anger but was cut short by Batman as he lifted his arm up to tell him to be quiet. Flash stood there still ready to launch himself forward at the creature.

As the creature neared the two heroes, it stopped. Looking down at both the men, it looked down at Wonder Woman and gave a soft growl.

"Rebecca," the creature growled as it looked over Wonder Woman. The creature looked up at Batman. Holding her out to him, "Please help Rebecca. Need to take care of something," it said in a deep voice. Batman stepped up to the creature and reached out for Wonder Woman. The creature lowered Wonder Woman into the arms of Batman and stood up straight. "Please help her." This time, the creature's voice sounded caring and concerned. Batman looked up into its eyes and nodded in agreement.

See that Wonder Woman was going to be helped, the creature turned its attention to the fight between Superman and the mad man. With a deep bone-shaking growl, the creature's face seemed to elongate and its teeth began to grow. A snarl bared the jagged teeth of the monster. On it forehead, two horns began to grow and encircle upon themselves on each side of the creature's head, resembling that of a set of ram's horns but completely black.

With a flex of its wings, the creature took off down the street.

Standing there, confused, The Flash watched on as the creature took off down the street, not caring what was in its way. Vehicles of all sorts were kicked to the side as it charged down the street. Turning around, Flash watched as Batman jumped down off the sedan and back onto the sidewalk. With Wonder Woman in hand, he crouched down and laid her down on the cement. Flash walked up to Batman and Wonder Woman completely confused at what just happened.

"Ok, I am completely lost now," The Flash said in confusion over what he just witnessed. "What just happened here?"

Batman shook his head at The Flash's comment. "Weren't you paying attention to what he said?"

The flash tilted his head to the side a little at Batman's question.

"Of course," he said, looking down at Wonder Woman. "For some reason it called Wonder Woman Rebecca. Why would it do that," Flashed asked with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You don't know who that was do you," he asked Wally. Wally shook his head. "For some reason, he thought that Wonder Woman was his wife Rebecca."

Sudden realization shot into Wally's mind. With wide eyes, he looked at Batman and Wonder Woman and back again.

"You mean," he began. "That thing was..."

Batman nodded.

"For being 'The Fastest Man Alive', you sure were slow on picking that up," Batman said as he studied Wonder Woman for any injuries. "Somehow, when Max was thrown into the Daily Planet by that maniac, he changed into that thing." Batman stopped talking for a moment to think. "But when I looked into his eyes, they had a glassy look of a man who was unconscious."

"Why don't you come back down here and play some more Flyboy," the mad man teased Superman. The only strategy Superman had right now was to strike at the man and then fly up. He was succeeding at it too. The man was tiring down while Superman was beginning to get his wind back. Each man gone through numerous vehicles, either crashing through them as they fought, or as each man picked one up and used it as a weapon. "You're not making this... any-" the man stopped speaking as he caught movement behind Superman. He tilted his head to see what was making the movement.

With a lunge, the creature landed behind Superman. Turning around to see what landed behind him, Superman, who was floating a few feet off the ground, was met with a close view of a green muscular barrel chest. Heaving breathing from the creature made the chest movements menacing.

"Mind if I cut in," a mean deep growl came from the creature. Before either man could answer, the creature swung a muscular arm and batted Superman into a vacant building. "I didn't think so." The mad man looked his new playmate over. To him, size never really mattered. He had fought with creatures that dwarfed even this new opponent.

"So now I have a new dance partner," the maniac said with a smile that showed his eagerness for another fight. "Hopefully you don't go flying around like the pixie boy did before you stepped in. And man are you ugly!"

The creature stared down at the maniac. "You hurt Rebecca," he growled in hatred.

"Whoever that is," the man said as if it meant nothing to him. The maniac, with the same lightning fast movement he has had through all the fighting, punched the creature in the stomach. With a sickening thud, his powerful fist made contact.

The creature was not fazed.

"You hurt Rebecca," the creature said once more in a hatred filled growl. "Punishment is death." With speed that betrayed the large size of the creature, he began to thrust his own fists into the sternum of the maniac. Strike after strike was thrust at the man. Each contact sent shock waves out into the city. "I will never forgive you," he said as he struck the maniac in the face with a strong right hook. Wanting to take advantage of the hit, the maniac turned with the force of the punch. Turning around from the momentum, he brought his own right fist up to strike out at the creature. With fast reflexes, the creature caught the maniac's forearm in a tight grip. Seeing that he failed with the maneuver, he turned and brought around his left fist. The creature caught that arm as well. With a simple jerk, the creature bent the man's elbows in the opposite direction that they were suppose to move.

A sickening scream bellowed out from the maniac's lungs.

"Dear God," Batman exclaimed as he heard the scream from the maniac. He knew what Max was about to do. "We got to stop him or he's going to kill him,' Batman said to Wally. Both men took off to stop Max.

Superman shook off a pile of steel I-beams from on top of him. Standing up, he scolded himself for being sucker-punched for a second time today. Taking a step forward, he heard the bellowing scream of pain from the street. With a flash of a run, he stopped at the edge of where the wall of the building use to be. He looked and saw the creature bending the maniac's elbows in the wrong directing. Looking down the street, he saw Wally and Batman running towards the creature. Batman jumped from vehicle to vehicle as Flash zoomed in between them. A second blood curdling scream turned Superman's attention back to the maniac and the creature. He watched as the maniac's legs were kicked out from under him. With his arms still in the grip of the creature, each of his shoulders were forcibly dislocated. The man's arms now looked like those of a marionette's, dangling with no real natural movement. The creature let go of the man's arms and began to raise his fists up. Realization clicked into Superman's mind at what he was about to do. The creature was going for the killing blow.

"You will never hurt her again," the creature yelled at the maniac. The man lay there in pain. Realization clicked into his mind. He enjoyed this world, but this was too far. He wanted a good fight. This was no longer a fight he could continue. He was down and pain shot through his body form his shattered elbows and severely dislocated shoulders. "Never again," the creature yelled at the top of his lungs as he raised his fists for the final blow.

The mad man squeezed his eyes shut, ready for the final blow that would end his life.

The only thing that hit him was a shock wave. Opening his eyes, the maniac looked up to see what stopped the oncoming death blow. He looked up to see Superman.

"No one is going to kill any more," Superman grunted as he held the creature's fists above his head with his own hands. His arms and the creature's arms were both shaking with the strain at each other's strength. "He will not be killed."

The creature lowered his head to look Superman eye to eye. The creature's eyes were different. Each eye was a deep crimson and seemed to flare at the edges from some sort of flame.

"He hurt Rebecca," the creature growled in hatred and distaste. "He must die!" The creature added more strength to his arms, trying to get Superman to give up and let him finished the maniac.

"Rebecca's fine," a voice called out from behind the creature. Superman heard this and recognized the voice. It was Batman.

"What," the creature demanded.

"She's fine," Batman said from behind the creature. Batman was coming to a stop at a distance so as not to get hit by one of the creature's wings if he decided to attack with them. "I looked her over and she is fine. She woke up and is wanting to see you," Batman said, lying to the creature in hope that he would calm down. Superman suddenly felt the resistance in the creature's arms give way. The creature lowered his arms down to his side and turned his head towards Batman.

"She is," he said with a voice filled with relief. Suddenly, as if watching smoke being blown away by a wind, the form of the creature dissipated to reveal Max's form.

"What the," Superman exclaimed in surprise. "Max?" Superman could not believe his eyes. The creature was Max.

"Thank God," Max said. As he spoke, Max went limp, falling down to the street unconscious.

"How did you know," Superman asked Batman as he picked the maniac up from the pavement.

Batman looked at Superman. He walked towards Max's unconscious form and proceeded to pick him up.

"When he approached Flash and I with Wonder Woman in his arms," Batman began.

"Oh no, Wonder Woman. How is she," Superman asked in concern. He had forgotten for a moment that she was knocked unconscious by the maniac earlier.

"She's fine," Batman assured Superman. Superman sighed in relief. "Anyway," Batman began again as he and Superman walked back to Wonder Woman's location with their cargo in hand. The maniac stayed silent except for a grunt her and there from the sudden jolt of pain from his arms. "Max said that this maniac had injured Rebecca. That is the same name as Max's wife. And seeing as how the creature came from around the same area as MAx was thrown, I simply put things together. We do not know what Max is fully capable of."

"That is true," Superman agreed.

"Guys," Flash said as he ran to a stop in front of Superman and Batman.

"What is it Flash," Superman asked him as they reached where Batman and placed Wonder Woman.

"A Javelin as just landed with Hal and Kyle," Flash said, his voice filled with worry.

"What's wrong," Batman asked as he set Max down next to Wonder Woman.

"J'onn is in trouble," Flash said as he knelt down to pick Wonder Woman up. "Shayera sent Hal and Kyle to keep the maniac restrained and to help take care of any injuries. And seeing as the teleport system can't get a lock on Max, he would be riding up in the Javelin."

"What's wrong with J'onn," Superman asked Flash.

"He went into convulsions soon after the fighting started," Kyle said as he and Hal floated towards the three men. "We need to get you back to the Watchtower now. There have been three other Javelins filled with other League members to help with everything."

"And we have another situation," Hal said as he landed. "My ring sent a distress call to the Green Lantern HQ concerning some psionic disruption."

"That would have to have been Max," Batman said plainly.

"That can't be," Hal said in astonishment. "No human or known being living now could have created a disruption strong enough to be felt as far away as the moon is."

"And we still don't know everything about Max," Batman said to Hal as he picked up Max's unconscious body. "I doubt even he knows what he is capable of doing."

"Then we will just have to keep our eyes on him," Kyle said, raising his hand. A green glow appeared and shot towards the mad man.

"Good," Superman said. "Now lets get back to the Watchtower so we can get things taken care before the Corps gets here." Superman let go of his grip on the mad man as a glowing green restraint suit formed over his body from the two Green Lanterns. Even in his current injured state, he still struggled as much as he could, putting strain on the two Lanterns.

Entering the med bay behind Batman, Superman set Wonder Woman down on a bed as Batman did the same with Max. A few beds away was the convulsing form of their fellow Martian teammate. J'onn looked to them to be under attack.

"What happened," Superman asked Shayera who was standing a few feet from the foot of J'onn's bed.

"We were in the Monitor Womb monitoring the fight when J'onn started complaining about having a headache," Shayera said, her arms wrapped around her stomach in worry. "Shortly after, he had a seizure and fell from his chair. Hal just happened to be walking by when all this began. We could not use a gurney, so Hal encircled J'onn with his ring and carried him here."

Batman stepped up to Shayera and looked her in the eyes. "When did he start having the headache," he asked calmly.

"About when Max was fighting that maniac," She replied. Tears were rolling down her face. She had never seen J'onn in so much pain before.

"When during the fight," Batman asked.

"About the time the maniac threw him into the building."

Batman looked at Shayera with calculating eyes. He stood up straight and allowed his cape to encase him. Superman saw this and knew Batman knew something.

"What is it, Batman," Superman asked his teammate. Batman did not answer right away. He was thinking over the facts and put things together.

"We now that Max's abilities come from the Mendara Crystal inside his brain," Batman began. "He was knocked out and possibly on the verge of death when he was thrown in the building. When that moment occurred, what I assume was a protective measure, the Mendara flared."

"You're saying that Max caused J'onn's current situation when he impacted the building," Hal said as he walked into the med bay.

"Yes," Batman replied. "The human brain is not fully understood. He could have access to areas of the brain that would allow him to perform any numerous skills. Telepathy, telekinetic abilities, and many more could be access within his brain. When he was knocked unconscious, his body went into protection mode, tapping into more power inside the Mendara."

"But didn't he say that if he accessed the full potential of the Mendara Crystal, he would be signing his own death sentence," Superman said to Batman.

"Yes he did," Batman agreed. "But he was not aware of it. I think that when he is in a situation such as the battle we just had, he begins to access some sort of protective measure set inside his mind and the Mendara."

"But if he is unconscious, why is J'onn still convulsing," Shayera asked Batman.

"The simple foreign feeling of the Mendara is something that he has been feeling uneasy about since Max has appeared," Batman said as he walked up next to the convulsing form of J'onn. "He spoke to me shortly before the mad man appeared that he was receiving a strange unknown feeling from Max. Even when J'onn was first trying to get a teleport lock on Max for the first time, the system was being blocked. And when Max appeared on the bridge, J'onn told me that he could not read Max's mind."

"So, he doesn't read people's minds because he thinks its invasion of privacy," Superman added in.

"It was not that," Batman replied. "J'onn told me that he could not receive anything from Max. All the time he can sense something coming from everyone he is around. But when Max arrived, his mind has been like looking into a hole. J'onn just could not seeing anything there."

"That's because the Mendara prevents telepaths from looking inside," the worn groan of a voice from Max sounded from his bed. Everyone turned at the sound of Max's voice.

"What did you do to J'onn," Shayera demanded from Max. She picked up her mace and was ready to pummel any answer from Max.

"I did nothing," Max began. That was not what she wanted to hear. Shayera raised her mace and charged with a warrior yell. Superman quickly stepped in between her and Max. "Sorry, that was the wrong way to say it. I meant that I personally did not do anything to J'onn. What happened was that the Mendara had sent out a telepathic signal for help. Seeing that J'onn was not familiar with the call, he could not comprehend what he was receiving. There is a certain telepathic key that needs to be given before trying to comprehend the signal. If that signal is not given, its like trying to listen to a billion conversations at once over a single phone call. Too much information caused it."

"Then is there a way you can help him, Max," Hal asked calmly, though he struggled with keeping himself calm.

"Yes, I think," Max said. He thought for a moment. Max stood up. Suddenly Max began to feel dizzy and his legs felt as if he were trying to stand on jello. Sitting back down and breathing hard, Max shook his head. "I'm sorry. Did not realize how tired I was."

"You better not be too tired to help J'onn," Shayera said with revulsion. "Or you wont be tired when I beat you to a pulp."

Max agreed and began to mentally check over his body. Whatever happened, it took its toll on him. He felt as if he had just finished running 30 miles and proceeded to ride a bike for another 30 and then lift weights for a solid two hours. Every muscle in his body screamed from the soreness. He sat there on the bed for a few minutes, taking in controlled deep breathes. His muscles had felt something similar, but not so amplified.

"I think there is one way I can help him," Max said as he exhaled a deep breath. Shayera stood there ready to pound Max through a few floors of the Watchtower. "But you might not like what it entails."

"What is it," Superman asked as he still blocked Shayera.

"There might be a chance of me helping him," Max said as he forced himself to his feet. His head began swimming, but he quickly shook his head as if to get water out of one of his ears. "I will need to take him into my 'between'."

"The hell you are," Shayera called out in fury. "There's no way we're trusting you with being alone with J'onn."

"Then do you have somewhere that is blocked by any and all telepathy and brainwaves," Max asked out as he kept eye contact with the Thanagarian warrior.

"No," Batman said plainly.

"Then I'll need to take him there," Max said. "I'll even leave the 'doorway' open so you can watch what is happening."

"And how do we know that you won't just do something to change what we see," Shayera asked in anger. "For all we know you could just be systematically be taking each one of us out and guise it as being helpful."

"Then why don't you and Superman or one of the Green Lanterns follow us in to make sure that I don't do anything to your dislike," Max said, trying to assure Shayera.

"That sounds good to me," Hal agreed. "I'll go with you Shayera."

"Fine," Shayera said, finally lowering her mace. She was not happy, but with her and Hal, there would be no way Max would hurt J'onn. With things settled, Max walked over to J'onn's bed and formed a large enough 'door' to his between to allow the entire bed. Hal encased J'onn and the bed in a protective green orb. Max stood by as Hal carried J'onn with his ring through the 'door'. With a menacing glare, Shayera entered soon after Hal. Max turned to Superman, "Superman, usually time does not pass in there, but with the 'door' open to here, it will pass. The process will take however long it will take for J'onn to and I to figure out a version of the key so J'onn can stop with the convulsions."

"Take care," Superman warned Max. "If things dont work out, Hal won't be strong enough to keep Shayera from pummeling you with her mace."

"I will," Max assured Superman. "The 'door' will be accessable to anyone here who wishes to visit, but please only one at a time. I do not know how much of a strain it will be on me to keep the 'door' open."

With a nod, Superman patted Max on the shoulder. Max gave a reassuring nod back to Superman and entered the 'between'.

"I have a strange feeling about this," Wally said after Max entered his 'door'. "Not a bad feeling, just a strange feeling."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven: The Corps and Crystal

As an hour passed by, Shayera and Hal Jordan stood by as Max tried to help their friend. Due to the psionic eruption, J'onn was bombarded with enough energy to sear a regular man's mind to ash. But due to his morphic Martian makeup, he was able to block enough to stay alive. Though he was still yelling out in pain. The Martian screams were haunting to Shayera and Hal. Shayera wanted to just put J'onn out of his misery just so he would stop. It seemed merciful.

"Aargh," Max said as he dropped to his knees, panting. His mind was trying with all his concentration to help implant the key inside J'onn's mind. But every time it seemed to work, it would slip. J'onn's body showed that as well. The moment the key started to work, J'onn's body would begin to change back into his Martian form. But once it failed, so did the solidity of his form. "I got part of it to stick this time."

Part of the last attempt had worked. A small fraction of the key managed to stick, allowing J'onn's screams to lessen considerably. Now al Max had to do was find a way to attach the rest of it so the key could take hold.

"You're not giving up already are you," Shayera asked, her hand caressing the hilt of her mace.

"No," Max said with a deep breath. "This is something that I have not tried before. It is something different and I am learning as I go."

"You don't know what you're doing," Shayera exclaimed in shock and anger. "You brought us here to this 'place' and you now say that you don't know what you are doing?" Max shrugged his shoulders a little as he stood thinking, calculating over what to do.

Shayera looked down for a moment, "That's it, I'm going to kill you," she looked back up and pulled her mace up into a fighting stance.

"Hey now," Hal said. He raised his ring and formed a shimmering green brick wall in front of Shayera. "Calm down, Shayera."

"Calm down," Shayera was livid. She wanted blood and she would go through even Superman to get it. Hal walked around the wall to face Shayera. She was ready to use his head as a target for her mace.

"Let Max do what he can," Hal said. He tried to assure Shayera, as well as himself, that Max could help J'onn. "He has already said that part of it was working. J'onn has even calmed his screaming and is not having as many seizures as before."

As Hal and Shayera yelled at each other on the opposite side of the green wall, Max began to pace along the side of J'onn's gurney. J'onn's body was beginning to fit on the oversized gurney with little hanging off the sides. But Max did not know what to do to make the rest stick. His mind went through all his training and the history of past Chosen to try and figure a way to help his friend. He knew there had to be some way to get the key to work fully. Max's mind went through many scenarios to try and figure out a way to fix the key. The direct strikes were not working. J'onn's makeup was just too different.

"I've got it," Max said to himself after ten minutes of thinking. Behind him, he could hear Hal and Shayera yelling at each other on the other side of Hal's wall. "Direct approaches to his mind were not working. His mind keeps moving and I can't seem to follow it and stay with it long enough." Walking a few yards away from J'onn, Max created a work table with a simple though. On the table, he had all the instruments he needed. Reaching for a set of pliers, Max began to gather crystalline in his system to a point on his collarbone. On him, that was the closest bone to grow the shard he needed for this to work. With the pliers in one hand, he picked up a scalpel in the other. Focusing the crystalline in his body, he began to form a lump on the right side of his collarbone. When the bump protruded about three inches out, Max drew in a large breath and used the scalpel to cut into his skin. Holding back a much needed cream of pain, Max cut a slit down the middle of the top of the lump. Setting the bloody instrument down, Max took the pliers in his left hand and forced it into the incision. Moving the head of the pliers around, and keeping in the scream, Max took hold of the source of the lump and pulled it out. Exhaling in much needed relief, Max set a bloody crystal shard down on the table top. Taking a rag, Max healed up the incision and wiped down the incision point. All that was left was a very light scar and a small bruise.

"How long are they going to argue," Wally asked to no one in particular. Superman, Batman, and Kyle stood by with Wally as they watched the silent argument between Hal and Shayera. Batman was more interested in what Max was doing than watching them fight. He had watched as a work table appeared and he began to work. Batman was interested with what was on the table. He could not quite make out what Max was working on, but the moment he saw Max tense up in pain, he knew something was not right. Keeping an eye on him, Batman stood near the door. He could see Shayera and Hal arguing and not paying any attention to the person they were sent in there to watch.

Suddenly, Batman's eyes grew wide for a moment when he saw Max placing a blood stained rag onto the table top. And in front of his eyes, as if watching a mirage take true form, Batman watched as Max began to work with a tool used for only one thing, making shotgun shells. Quickly standing up, startling Wally, Batman made his way to the door. He was hesitant for a moment about crossing through the door. But what he saw next was something that caused him to tense up even more. Wally walked up to Batman wondering why he had suddenly stood up and was so interested in what Max was working on. Wally did not see or recognize what Max was working with.

"Man those two need to get a room or something," Wally joked about Hal and Shayera arguing. He looked at Batman and tilted his head, curious at what he was thinking. "You all right Bats? You don't look too good." Wally looked at Batman's eyes as they widened in shock. Wally had never seen Batman acting shocked before. He followed his line of sight just in time to see Max loading shells into a modified shotgun.

Wally saw this and was just about ready to run in to stop him when Batman held up his arm to stop him. "Wait," was all Batman said.

"Are you nuts? He's going to shoot J'onn," Wally yelled in anger at Batman. Wally's outburst drew the attention of everyone in the room. Superman, Wonder Woman, Kyle, Plastic Man, Mr. Fantastic (who was busy taking readings on the 'doors' physical status; he was enjoying looking over all the information Max was giving him), and a few technicians helping with the information.

Superman acted faster than Batman could stop him. Flying into the door, Superman raced his way to block what Max was about to do. Max had raised the shotgun and aimed it at The Martian Manhunter. Everything went into slow motion. Superman raced to block the shot, while Hal and Sayera were turning to the sound of the shotgun cocking. Then everything seemed to speed up. Superman managed to stand in between J'onn and Max, but he was not in time from stopping Max from firing. With a loud bang, the shotgun released its ammo towards Superman and J'onn. Superman stood there with his fists on his sides. A few things quickly caught The Max of Steel off guard. First, there was no smell of gunpowder or any smoke. Second, the ammo that was released was not stopped by him. He watched as the small projectiles simply went straight through his chest. Superman turned fast enough to watch the sparkling projectiles make their way out his back, as if he was not even there, and directly towards J'onn. Wally, the Fastest Man Alive, ran in to try and grab them out of the air. They treated him as they did Superman. When the projectiles neared J'onn, only Superman and the Flash and Max could see what happened. When they neared, they broke into smaller pieces. When they made contact with J'onn's body, something unexpected happened. But Max knew it would likely occur.

When the projectiles, made from the crystal Max formed from the piece he had formed on his collarbone, made contact with J'onn's contorting form, his body seemed to suddenly spasm and flew off the gurney. Superman turned and grabbed Max by the throat.

"Why did you shoot him," he yelled in anger. Max watched as Superman's eyes began to glow red from his heat vision.

"I would not-" Max began, but was cut off from Superman's grip on his throat.

"We trusted you and this is how you repay us," Superman yelled in disappointment and anger. "You killed him!"

"No he did not my friend," a strained voice said from behind Superman. Superman's eye cooled and grew wide at the voice. He turned around to see J'onn's form slowly standing up and collecting together into a humanoid form. "I understand now why Max did as he did, though he was a bit rash," J'onn said as he completed his form. "I can see clearly why Max had to do what he did with the shotgun. The crystalline he gave me had to be inserted into me at a wide spray and not just injected by regular means."

"What," was the only thing Superman said as he lowered Max down and released his hold on his throat. Max began to cough as he sucked in air.

"I am sorry I was so harsh on the approach to allowing J'onn some of my crystalline," Max said as he coughed. "Due to his morphing abilities, I could not just inject them in at one sight. It had to be over most of his body or it would not have worked. Isn't that what you thought as well, Batman," Max said as he turned to the door. Batman was walking through at that moment. All he gave Max was a simple nod of his head.

"So that's why you stopped me from running in here," Wally said from behind Superman. He quickly stepped and stopped in front of Batman. "You could have just told me before I yelled out that Max was going to shoot J'onn."

"And would that have stopped you," Batman said plainly. He looked Wally in the eyes. Wally shrunk back a moment from his gaze.

"Not really," he said, acknowledging how right Batman was. "Man, don't you hate being right all the time?"

"I'm not right all the time, I just think through what could happen," Batman said to Wally. Batman walked by Wally and up to J'onn. "How are you feeling?"

"Strangely good," J'onn assured him. J'onn looked over at Max, "This crystalline is something truly amazing. The best way that I can describe what they are… they feel like solidified psychic energy." J'onn moved his hands over his body. "They feel familiar to me."

"Remember what I said earlier," Max began, "the race that the Mendara came from, on my world, had also colonized Mars. That is the connection you are probably feeling.

"Hey guys," Hal interrupted. He raised his ring up to show his colleagues. "The Corps reinforcements are here."

Hearing this, everyone inside the 'door' looked out and noticed a bit of added commotion. Everyone began to exit so they could find out what was going on and help where needed. As Max, the last one to leave, emerged, he was greeted with three Green Lantern Corps members with raised rings pointed directly at him. Max looked over at a monitor and noticed that they were not the only ones there. On one screen alone Max counted out more than a few dozen.

"Hal Jordan," a large pink alien said in a deep voice. He looked like a cross between a Neanderthal and a pig. "Why isn't this man in custody?"

"Easy Kilowag," Hal said as he raised his hands up in defense. "Everything is taken care of. Nice to see you guys again, John, Guy." Each man he greeted nodded their heads in greeting but did not lower their rings. "Did half the Corps really need to show up for just for some simple back up?"

"No," Guy responded. "One of the Smurfs wanted to come along to see who this guy was that released such a powerful psionic eruption."

"Do not call the Guardians names, Guy," Kilowag reprimanded.

"Whatever, big guy," Guy said, brushing off the one of many warnings Kilowag had given him. "So who is this guy?"

Max was standing in the 'door'. With a quick wave of his hand, the door evaporated. The only reaction it received from the Lanterns was a quick widening of the eyes, but nothing more.

"My name is Max Colbern," Max began to explain himself. "The simplest way I can explain myself is that I am not from this world."

"Oh great, another guys from another dimension," Guy shrugged. "Just what we need."

"I am not from any alternate dimensions that are with this one," Max corrected Guy.

"Say what," Guy said, completely lost at what Max just said.

"He is not from this reality, Elite Guard Guy Gardner," A gentle voice came from the hall. A short blue man with pulled back white hair appeared at the doorway and entered the med bay.

Max saw this and let out a sudden giggle. "Ok, who painted the guy from the Lollipop Guild," Max said without thinking. This brought a smirk to Guy's face, as well as a few others. Hearing this blatant insult, Kilowag formed a green fist and grabbed Max, lifting up off the floor by a few inches. "Watch it big guy. If you lift me up too high, the little guy won't be able to see me any more." Max was shocked at what he was saying. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he saying these things? Why was he disrespecting someone he just met?

Guy and Plastic Man could not hold it in. They both began to laugh at what Max said. Plastic Man began rolling around on the floor, wrapping his arms repeatedly around his stomach. Kilowag was furious. Max felt the fist holding him tighten around his body.

"That is quite interesting," the Guardian said. He too began to laugh a little.

"Sir, are you all right," Kilowag asked the Guardian.

"Of course, Elite Guard Kilowag," the Guardian said. "You can release the man now."

"But sir, he insulted you, a Guardian," Kilowag protested. He did not release his hold on Max. With a wave of the Guardian's hand, the green fist that Kilowag had formed around Max dissipated.

"I do apologize," the Guardian said as he approached Max. "And there is no need to apologize for those comments. They were caused by me simply trying to probe your mind without having a reaction such as the Martian.

"I thought I felt something tickling my brain," Max said as he scratched the back of his head.

"So tell me, Max," the Guardian said to Max. "Tell me how you were able to cause such a large enough psionic eruption to be felt all the way at Oa."

"Where's that," Max asked the Guardian.

"Let me just say that it's a few million parsecs from here," the Guardian said. This caused Max's eyes to widen in shock and curiosity. Max began to tell the Guardian everything that he had told the Justice League.

In the snow covered peaks of the Himalayan Mountains, a man stomped his way into the high speed winds. Stopping at what one would take as a simple shear face of rock, the man knelt down and punched his hand through the two foot thick ice at his feet. Strike after strike caused ice chunks to fly everywhere. Reaching the rock underneath, the man punched once more on the rock. This caused a portion of the rock face to fall back a few inches. As the rock door lifted open, the man ducked down and entered the dark cold passage.

Near the end of the passage, the man began taking off his multiple layers of protective clothing. At the end of the passage was a large metal wall. As he approached, a door opened up. Inside was a room filled with multiple luxuries. Large animal furs covered majority of the stone floor. Off to the right was a large fireplace big enough to roast a whole four hundred pound hog. To the man's right, carefully crafted wooden chairs surrounding a large black marble banquet table that was covered in many different types of food. And directly in front of the man was a communication's station with a massive screen creating a soft white glow over the equipment.

"Broker," the man called out. On the screen, a humanoid shadow appeared.

"So what happened to that mad man, Thur-at," the Broker asked the man.

"He was very pleased with his purchase," the man replied.

"Then why do I have this feeling that there is something I will not like," the Broker sounded displeased.

"Thur-at was enjoying this new planet sir, but there was something that we did not pick up on our scans over the years,"

"Don't make me ask," the Broker said, angered at what he was about to hear.

"Thur-at was powerful enough to take on this so called Superman that this small world had to offer. We had calculated that he would be strong enough to overpower Thur-at. But someone else stopped him."

"And who was it? The Wonder Woman or maybe that Martian," the Broker asked.

"No sir, this man we have no record of. Every scan we have done covered every inch of this planet," the man explained to his employer. "It's as if he appeared out of no where a few days ago." There was a moment of silence from the Broker. "Sir?"

"So you have scans of the man?"

"Yes sir. I am forwarding the info packet now," the man said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black cube big enough to fit in the palm of the hand. He placed it on an indention on the console in front of him and pressed down. The cube lit up to a soft white.

"Oh by The First Deal," The Broker said in astonishment. "This is quite the best piece of information you have given yet about that pathetic world."

"But as you read sir, he is not from this planet. My information says that he is not even from this universe," the man said, glad that his employer was happy.

"Which makes the price of this world all the more valuable," The Broker said as he laughed with joy. "Add this to the info-stacks and send them to the clients. I am going to make enough money to by my own section of this galaxy."

"As you wish, sir," the man said. He sat down and prepped the info-stacks for shipment.

Interesting so far?? Hope so. There is much more I want and will add to this story and much more that Max is capable of. For instance, why is did a Guardian come by to personally meet Max? Who is The Broker? And what are his plans for Earth? Will he have plans for Max? You'll just have to stay tuned. Same Bat time, same Bat channel. Oh, and please review my story. I would really like to know how things go.


	8. The Rifts

Sorry it took me so long to get this up, been busy with other things, mostly being sick and classes. But, here it is!

"So, Max," the Guardian began. Max and the Guardian sat down at the League's round meeting table. Max sat opposite of the Guardian, as Kilowag and the other Green Lanterns sat to either side of him. "I have looked over the information that the League has taken and I am brought to a very strange conclusion."

"What is that," Max asked. He was interested about the insight the Guardian had.

"What I saw as a mere small cosmic disturbance actually was something all entirely different." Max thought of the rift that brought him to this Earth and away from his family. "We did indeed know about the creature Superman and the others fought. The creature was really nothing to worry about. But what came afterwards does pose something that troubles me and the other Guardians."

"What is that, sir," Kilowag asked, all the while keeping a solid glare on Max.

"It turns out that there have been similar readings throughout many galaxies," he said with his clam voice. Though the Green Lanterns did not pick up on it, Max could feel the worry in the Guardian's voice. "The rift that brought you here was cataloged as just a regular distortion. But when the psionic burst occurred, many of the Guardians, along with myself, went into action to see why it happened. When we traced it back to you, we found that you never existed until the same time the rift opened for a second time. That led us to start looking into the many other rifts that occurred throughout the universe."

"Have you come up with anything," Max asked. He was extremely interested about these rifts now. There had to be some reason why he was brought here. But he did not really want to know. All Max wanted was to find a way to get back home. And if it meant that he had to stay here and help, he would do it patiently. But that was the only cause he had in his mind, getting back to his family.

"Nothing yet," the Guardian replied. He lifted his right hand and held it out flat. Above it formed a large hologram of the local universe. "In this diagram, each of the small yellow lines represents a similar rift." In the hologram, Max was astonished at the number of rifts. He had counted well over a hundred with the Milky Way alone. He was also fascinated that the hologram held multiple galaxies other than the Milky Way. So many questions came to mind, but Max did not have the time to ask them. "These rifts do happen naturally, but nothing has ever occurred in result to them. But it was not until the strange creature the League took down had disturbed a rift that was occurring when the creature's power core ruptured. That was why it did not take out half of the Earth. Majority of the explosion was sucked in by the rift. And the resulting effect was the arrival of you in on Earth."

"So you are saying that thing could have taken out half the Earth," Shayera exclaimed as she stood up. Saying she was mad would have been an understatement. "Why haven't you informed us about these rifts before?"

"There was no cause to," the Guardian said flatly to Shayera. "They are more of a rainbow that appears after it rains. Do they harm you in any way?"

"No," Shayera said, only calming slightly. "But it would have been nice to know something like this is happening around us."

"Indeed," the Guardian was not pleased at the attitude the Thanagarean was giving him. He turned away from her and looked back at Max. "From our readings of the after affects from when you arrived, we have found that your universe is very different than ours. We were astonished that nothing else has crossed over in any other rifts near Earth. The magnitude of energy released was immense. We had tried it on several different rifts, but they all resulted in the destruction of the planets." Everyone in the room stared at how plainly he spoke of destroying several worlds just to have a similar incident occur. "Do not worry. They were performed on dead worlds in systems that would not affect any civilizations."

A few hours later, after the Guardian had finished speaking with Max and taking some samples of Max's Mendara Crystal, Max stood staring out a view window out onto the lunar surface. He had always wanted to see what space was like. Here he was on the lunar surface, and all he could think of was missing Rebecca. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood there staring out into space. His mind raced with scenarios of how he could get back to his world. The information the Guardian had given him was astonishing. He was able to soak up every bit of information. The first thing he wanted to try was have another explosion. But when the Guardian said they had tried it several times without success, Max's heart sunk at the first main possibility of creating a way back home.

As he stood looking out the window, many members of the League walked by Max. A few of them whispered about him, but he did not pay any attention.

"So you know someone who is more beautiful than a goddess," a female's voice spoke from behind Max. The lyrical voice broke Max out of his solemn stupor. Standing to his left was Wonder Woman.

"Oh Wonder Woman, hi," Max said as the Amazonian Princess approached him.

"I would be careful about saying things like that, I know a few goddesses that would strike you down where you stand if they hear you." Max looked at her dumfounded, his jaw hanging open. Wonder Woman gave a short laugh and patted Max on the shoulder. "Don't worry, they didn't take it personal."

"Say what," Max asked, completely flabbergasted at what she was saying.

"That's right, sorry Max," Wonder Woman apologized to him. "You don't know of where I came from."

"Actually, I was speaking with Wally when we first met and he mention you and the Amazons," Max said as he recalled meeting Wally for the first time. "I remember reading all about ancient Greek and Roman mythology. It was something that I loved reading. And when he mentioned that you were an Amazon and you have met with actual Gods and Goddesses, it blew my mind. The only way I have ever learned about the Gods and Goddesses were from TV programs and many volumes of books about them."

"Yes, they do tend to be a bit annoying from time to time, especially my father, Ares," Wonder Woman said, putting an obvious distaste to the name of her father. Max's eyes widened at that. She was part God. "That is not why I wanted to talk with you."

"Sure, what's on your mind," Max asked her as he turned to face her.

"When we were back fighting that maniac," Wonder Woman began, "I was told that you called me Rebecca."

"Yea, about that," Max was becoming uncomfortable now. He reached up with his right hand and began scratching the back of his head.

"Why exactly did you think I was her," she asked Max.

"When I called you Rebecca," Max began to say, his voice showing he was nervous. "I was not really all myself at the time." Max began to think of Rebecca. He mentally placed an image of her standing next to Wonder Woman. Max began to relax as he released a sigh. "To me, Rebecca is my world, a goddess to me. When we fell in love, I was the happiest person in the world. Her beauty is wondrous, but adding in how smart she is… it added another level of beauty that could only be described as that of a goddess."

"Sounds like you really love and miss her," Wonder Woman said as she smiled. "I have only heard of such strong love in stories from ancient tales I have read. But why did you call me by her name," Wonder Woman asked again with a small smile.

"I guess, subconsciously, seeing as you are actually part god, my mind was trying to take things in that normally would be impossible in real life. Since I have been here, I have seen things that only exist in stories or in theories. And seeing as how you were knocked unconscious by a cheap blow, my mind changed you into Rebecca, the one person I so truly love and would do anything for."

Hearing this made Wonder Woman blush. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment."

"I haven't showed anyone this yet," Max said as he reached back and pulled out his wallet. He opened it up to show two pictures of him and Rebecca. The one on the left was a picture from prom and the right picture was of one from a roller coaster camera. "This is one of the first pictures taken of us together," Max said as he pointed to the prom picture. He stood tall in a rented tux while Rebecca stood (almost eye to eye with Max) in a lovely red oriental dress with black lettering and designs.

"I take that back, she would give Aphrodite herself reason to be jealous," Wonder Woman said with a smile. "She is very lucky to have such a caring boyfriend."

"Actually, we're married," Max said with a smile. Wonder Woman smiled at him and nodded in appreciation. "But we only just got married a few weeks ago." Remembering that, Max's smile went away. "I just want to be back with her."

"I must be very hard for you to be thrust onto a world you know nothing about and so many things seem to be out of place," Wonder Woman said, trying to comfort Max. "I too use to be in a similar position you are in right now, but not as drastic as being on another Earth."

"How is that Diana," Max asked using her name. "It is ok if I call you Diana?"

"Of course it is fine Max," Diana assured him. "You are a friend." Diana looked back out the window and studied the shining Earth. "I come from a small island that was shut out from the rest of the world. A time came when my people, the Amazons, needed to send an ambassador into the world of man. I won the honor and left the island. When I entered the world of man, I felt completely out of place. But soon I met and joined with friends to create the Justice League. I joined hoping to spread truth and justice to the wrong doers of the world. But I soon realized that the mission was a neverending battle. Luckily, I have my new friends here to help."

Max and Diana stood at the window for a few more minutes without saying a , Max began to feel something strange. He turned his head to look up and down the hall. Diana saw this and wondered what, if anything, was wrong.

"Are you all right Max," Diana asked him.

"Something doesn't feel right," Max said to her as he continued to look around. "It's like the same feeling," Max began but was interrupted by an alarm.

"Diana," Batman spoke through her ear communicator. "We have another rift opening."

"Let me guess, in the United States, near Cincinnati," Max said plainly.

"How," was all Batman said over the comm. "Diana, bring Max along. He just told you where the rift is opening. And this time, something has come through, something big."

With a nod, both Max and Diana began running to the bridge.

In the bustling city of Cincinnati, the everyday peaceful life was torn apart as four rifts torn open in separate areas in the city. Normally, things like this would only happen in places like Metropolis or Gotham. But now Cincinnati added their name to a long list of extra-spacial phenomenon.

Two rifts opened up in the northern part of the city. Each rift force two large alien creatures resembling distorted dinosaurs and one had wings. Another rift opened up in the middle of mid-town. This creature resembled that of a monstrous cross between an octopus, a Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish, and a spider. The creature itself began forming a monstrous thick web between many of the tall skyscrapers. The fourth rift opened up near a highway bridge going over the Ohio River. This one was different. The rift did not release a monster like the other three. This one was different, and smaller.

"We have a major problem," J'onn said to Diana, Wally, Superman, Batman, Supergirl, Shayera, Hal, and Max. "Originally we picked up a single rift event in Cincinnati. But on closer review, there have been four distinct rift openings each with its own creature. Three of them have opened inside the city itself." J'onn brought up a screen that showed live feeds of three of the monstrous creatures. "The fourth creature so far has not been identified, but there are readings that the rift over the Ohio River did have something come through."

"Remind me never to eat sushi again," Wally said as he watched the jellyfish like monster crawling between three building, tentacles thrashing and destroying windows on the buildings.

"I agree with you on that," Hal said as he held his stomach with his left hand. Each one of them began to feel nauseated by the sight of the thing. Supergirl felt the same way as she looked at the thing.

"Superman and Hal, I want you to take care of the flying creature. Batman and Shayera, you two take care of the spider monster. Supergirl and Wonder Woman, you two take the other creature. Wally and Max, you two stay as I need to give you two more information on the fourth." With their duties handed out each League member teleported down to the city to take care of the new threat.

"Why cut me out of the action J'onn," Wally complained. "What's so big that you need to keep me here with Max." Max shot a look at Wally. "No offense, Max,"

"None taken," Max replied. "But I think I might know why we both are still here and not looking for the fourth creature."

J'onn eyed Max for a moment. With the new crystalline that has helped him with reading and communicating with Max, J'onn still wondered about the man. "Flash, the fourth was not a large monster as everyone else is now fighting." On the monitor, each monster was being met with a barrage of hits from the League members. J'onn brought up a second monitor and brought up the reading on the fourth rift. "Seeing as Max is not a member, I thought he could be of some help seeing as I picked up some very unusual readings from the last rift." Wally and Max looked over the information on the monitor. Wally tried his best to translate the data, but was lost. Max, though, stood there wide-eyed. "Flash and Max, you to need to head down there to the bridge and see if you can get better readings on the anomalies that are beginning to appear near the rift. With your speed Flash, as each of the anomalies appear, you can quickly make your way to the destination almost as soon as Max picks it up with this detector." J'onn reached over and unplugged a handheld device from the monitor station. "Max, with this detector, simply scan the area as soon as Flash positions these three triangulation markers around the city." J'onn pointed to three points on the edges of Cincinnati; one to the northwest, the second to the northeast, and the third just south in Kentucky.

A moment later, Max and the Flash appeared on a bridge crossing over the Ohio River. Flash immediately took off to place the three markers. Max looked around at his surroundings. He knew this bridge. When he was younger, he had driven across it many times for business. But this was not the bridge he used to cross. Max felt weird as he looked out over the Ohio River. Max was so lost in thought, he did not realize Wally has returned.

"Sorry for the wait. I had to help clear some civilians away from two of the monster sites." Wally looked at his friend. Max was not paying attention. "Yo, dude. Anyone home," Wally said as he waved his hand in front of Max's face."

"Whaa," Max said, breaking out of his daze. "Oh, sorry. I was just remembering something." Max began typing in commands into the detector.

"You all right, man," Wally asked Max. "You look a little more spaced than usual."

"I'm fine Flash," Max said as he studied the detector screen. "I was remembering a few years ago I use to live north of here. I use to drive across this bridge many times on business." Max pushed a few buttons on the detector. "These are the general areas that the anomalies have appeared," Max pointed out to Wally.

"Be right back," Wally said as he dashed off in a red blur.

The Flash, Wally, ran to each of the areas where the strange reading occurred. He slowed down enough to see things clearly, but did not see anything out of the ordinary. As he turned down a street to head back to Max, Wally had the strangest feeling he was being watched. He continued running in a zigzag pattern up and down different streets. The feeling stayed with him. Finally, after running to the end of a long stretch of straight road, he turned around. To his astonishment, he did have an observer. Floating about shoulder level to him was a small robot with two sensors that gave the thing the resemblance of eyes. Flash sped up. Sure enough, the robot stayed with him. No matter where he ran or how fast he ran, the robot kept a steady five feet behind.

"Is there anything wrong down there Wally," J'onn communicated to him telepathically. "I am starting to get sever wind readings down there in the city."

"You won't believe this J'onn," Wally though to him. "I got an observer that's keeping up with me no matter how fast or where I run. The thing stays about five feet behind me."

"That explains why Max is sending me reading of an anomaly that is moving all over the place," J'onn thought to him.

"So the readings are from these robots then," Wally asked.

"It seems so. See if you can slow down and stop. See what it does," Max thought to Wally.

"Is that you Max," Wally thought, astonished.

"Yep, it's me, man," Max thought. "With helping J'onn, it allowed me to help communicate to you guys through him."

"Cool. Now about this bot," Wally asked.

"Stop running and see what it does," Max thought.

Wally agreed and began to slow down. He did not want to suddenly stop; the air pressure that would be released would be strong enough to cave in a thick brick wall. And from the commotion he was hearing from the fighting, he did not need to add to any more damage. He turned his head once and again to make sure it was staying with him. When he slowed down to a stop, Wally turned to the robot. It floated there for a moment. With a single blink from the 'eye' sensors, the robot let out a few beeps and simply disappeared.

Seeing the robot disappear caused Wally to jump back a few steps. The thing just vanished. It did not speed away, he would have seen it. The robot simply vanished.

"What the hell," Wally called out in shock. "Max, are you following the signal?"

"I was following it up to the point where it stopped for about three seconds. Then it disappeared off the detector," Max said over the ear comm.. "Just a second, Wally." Back on the bridge, Max was looking over the information the detection system was collecting. As he studied the readings, Max started to get a feeling of familiarity about them. "J'onn, are you seeing this?"

"Yes I am Max," J'onn said over the ear comm. "I have seen reading similar to these."

"I was about to say that they look familiar," Max said. "Why is that?"

"Because they are very similar to when you go through your between," Batman's voice interrupted. Max's eyes grew at the realization. "From what I am seeing," Batman said as he continued fighting off three tentacles, "it's giving off a frequency variance to your Mendara."

"You're joking right," Max asked, hoping Batman was truly joking.

"Batman never jokes," Wally said as he stopped next to Max. "The day the Bats makes a joke is the day I eat my gym socks." Max gave a bit of a smirk. Max thought things over for a moment. What was the feeling he had when he was up in the Watchtower talking with Diana. Max thought, remembering the feeling he had.

"So that was what that feeling was when I was talking with Wonder Woman," Max said in astonishment.

"What," Wally asked.

"Listen up everyone," Max said over the comm. "How is everyone doing?"

"Just finishing up putting the trimmings on this turkey," Hal said as he wrapped the defeated flying creature up in glowing green restraints.

"I am never going to look at sushi the same way again," Shayera responded.

"The webbing here is going to be a problem," Batman said. "But it's under control. Seems it does not like extreme cold all too much."

"And Barney here was just spooked at the sudden surroundings," Wonder Woman said about the third creature. Once I finally wrapped the lasso around its neck, we were able to talk to it and calm it down."

"It's like it was an over sized grossly mutated puppy, confused and afraid at the new surroundings. Do you think we can keep her cousin," Supergirl asked Superman.

"I was thinking that the only safe place to keep these things was up in my fortress," Superman said.

"Well, that's a good idea," Max said. "But we may have a bigger problem."

"What could be bigger than three oversized B-movie monster rejects," Wally asked Max.

Max studied the readings one last time. Suddenly, three separate anomalies appeared, each one at the position of each monster. A few seconds later, the readings and the monsters disappeared.

"Scratch that," Max corrected himself at reading the new readings. "We seem to have a much bigger problem. The fourth one just opened the rifts back up to send those things back." Max was looking at Wally. Wally saw that Max had a very concerned and troubled look over his face from the reading he just read. "The fourth creature might be someone who has the Mendara."

* * *

What do you think so far? Please review. In the next few chapters, you will begin to understand what I mean in the story summary why people think he is uncontrollable. Think of mixing a bit of The Joker's bad jokes, The Creeper's insanity, mixed with the intellegence of Batman, the attitude of The Flash, and strength comparable to Superman. What will happen? What cities will lie in ruin (or parts at least)? And which League member has to be sent to the med-lab immdiately due to Max? Find out. Again, please review!!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Max, with help from a few of the League, searched sighting after sighting of rifts for two months with no luck in pinpointing the mysterious being with the Mendara signature. Whoever it was, they either was not really on Earth any longer or really did not want to be found.

Max was back to his spot looking out at Earth from the viewing window. Batman had just finished speaking with him about setting up a place he use to let one of his wards, Dick Grayson (Nightwing), use before he headed to Bludhaven. Max had seen the condo and was impressed by it. But Max could only stay there if he decided to stay on Earth and work for Batman. Max's computer skills were by far almost, if not better than the Batman himself.

"I wonder who this Oracle is," Max said to Wally, who just happened to be standing still for the moment next to Max.

"She's one of the Bat's," Wally said as he finished chewing the last mouthful of a chilidog. "She is wicked scary at her hacking skills. You would not believe this, but even Batman himself said that she could hack any computer on the planet, be it government or private. Why do you think our computer systems can't be hacked?"

"I did wonder about that," Max said as he thought. "I never knew a system to be unhackable, but this place has some major security. I would not mind meeting-"

"Max, this is J'onn," J'onn thought to him and Wally.

"What's up J'onn," Max thought.

"We have picked up a signature in Gotham that matches the Mendara signature of the being you have been tracing," J'onn said.

"Good," Max thought to J'onn. "Wally, can you come with me?"

"Sure, but I'll have to ask the Bats first before I set foot in his city," Wally said with a shaky tone to his voice. "I don't want to have any surprises."

"Good," Max said. Max turned back to thinking, "J'onn, where is Batman?"

"Shortly after you finished speaking with him, Batman received a call from Oracle," J'onn thought to Max. "I tried to raise him, but he has his communicator off again."

"Well Wally, it looks like you'll just have to ask him when we get down there," Max said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "So, do you want to take the teleport down, or my way?"

"Dude, your way," Wally said without hesitation. "Whatever that door of yours is, I've wanted to try running through it onto the ground on Earth."

"Hmmm," Max thought as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and index finger. Max's eyes grew suddenly and a sly and slick smile covered his face.

"Please don't do that Max," J'onn thought to Max and Wally.

"Don't do what," Wally asked. A confused look covered his face under his mask.

Max could only think of two words. He opened his door and looked at Wally with the same smile.

The same smile covered Wally's face. Wally was getting the feeling what Max wanted to ask him.

Max looked at Wally and wanted to see if he could accomplish what he was thinking.

"Wanna race?"

Batman hid in the shadows behind a stack of crates as he listened in on the two criminals he had been hunting. The thugs that surrounded the two men were a strange mix. Half of the men wore clear masks that were covered with clown makeup. The other half was wearing the traditional thug outfits of everything black. Oracle was busy trying to analyze the chemical compounds that were stolen from multiple factories from around Gotham, Metropolis, and Cadmus.

The third source was worrying for Batman. Neither The Joker nor The Scarecrow was smart enough to break into the fortified research facility. The muscle was just that, muscle. He could not see anyone who would be smart enough, or dumb enough, to be in league with the two insane super-criminals. Batman thought that maybe Poison Ivy had a branch in on this, but there was no evidence of any of her mutated plant life. The security channels and firewalls were all maneuvered around as if the person danced around them, keeping them in place, but allowing Joker's and Scarecrow's men to enter and steal almost a ton of different chemicals.

"The Calculator," Batman thought. He was the only one who could accomplish such a task. Well, besides Oracle.

Batman's mind ran possibilities of what the chemicals could create if mixed. None of the chemicals that were stolen were part of Scarecrow's fear mist (which brought out the deepest fears in a person and made the person hallucinate those fears) or Joker's laughing gas (which left a permanent smile on a person's face while they literally laughed to death). Both men were dangerous when it came to chemistry. Batman thought, if only for a few short moments, that it was a shame that such brilliance with chemicals was wasted on two of his worse enemies.

"Hey Boss, here's that dame that was snoopin' around earlier," one of the hired thugs said. That broke Batman's train of thought. He leaned over and peered around the crate.

"And who do we have here," The Scarecrow asked in his raspy voice. "A new hero in Batman's town? I don't think he would be too happy. What do you say Joker," Scarecrow asked as he turned to the Clown Prince of Crime.

"She really needs to find a different tailor," Joker said between giggles. "This metal look is totally out of style. Maybe you should go with something a bit more purple and green. Hehehe." Joker picked up a purple cane with his face at the hilt and began to twirl it around in his hand. He turned around a few times and then pointed the cane at their captive. Joker raised her chin up with the tip of the cane.

Batman focused in on the captive. He did not recognize the outfit. The suit she wore seemed almost like a protective metal mesh and plating. It almost reminded him of Shining Knight's armor. But what seemed different about the suit was that it seemed to move too fluidly to be metal mesh. It almost seemed to be… alien.

With a flick of his cane, Joker forced the woman's helmet off, revealing her face and hair. Batman's eyes widened at what he saw.

Out from under her helmet flowed a mane of crimson red hair that flowed down to the middle of her back in a complicated braid. Her face was human, but…

"Well, Joker," Scarecrow began as he stared at the woman. "She at least has the green down. Now she just needs the purple."

"HA HAhahahah. Scarecrow my friend, that was all too funny," Joker called out as he began to have one of his famous laughing fits.

The woman then yelled at the two criminals in a language Batman had not heard before.

"Deary, if you want to communicate," the Joker began. He suddenly rushed forward and stopped, his face only inches away from hers. "You got to know the local lingo."

From what Batman could see, the woman stared at the Joker with fury and anger. She was quiet for only a moment.

"I said let me go you circus rejects," she yelled at the Joker. The suddenness and unexpectedness of her yelling in English at the Joker knocked him back on his ass. Batman gave a small smirk. The woman had a smirk of her own.

The Joker looked at her in a moment of shock. Then, from one of the thugs, a snicker arose to the Joker's ears. Standing up, Joker pulled out a revolver from under his coat and fired it at one of the thugs.

"No one laughs in here, especially at me!" Joker yelled as the man's body fell backwards, half a head short. "Now," Joker said as his happy demeanor changed to that of being mad. "What new Leaguer do we have that is sneaking around my town?"

"Let me go you poor excuse for a mime," the woman yelled at the Joker.

The Joker raised his weapon and the woman and fired.

But this time, only a flag with the word 'bang' on it flew out of the barrel.

"Oh darn, there's that flag," the Joker said, throwing the revolver over his shoulder. He began to laugh again.

"Oh deary, you are such the wise cracker. You should give the Bats some lessons," the Joker said as he performed a poor dance and flung himself onto a rather large makeshift throne.

"Who is this 'Batman' you speak of," the woman demanded of Joker.

"What? You have got to be joking," the Joker said, truly shocked. But then, he began to laugh at what she said. "Did you hear that Crow m'boy? She hasn't heard of the Bat." Joker began to laugh even more as he held his gut and kicked his legs.

"That is hard to believe," Scarecrow said as he stepped closer to the woman. "Are you related to that green Martian," he asked the woman.

"No," the woman answered. "Now let me go dammit!"

"Ooo, watch the language missy," Joker said in the midst of laughing. "These boys have sensitive ears." At saying that, Joker stopped his laughing for a few seconds. Then, he began laughing anew at the new joke.

"Gods," the woman said in annoyance, rolling her eyes.

Batman watched on, studying how he could get in and get out with the woman in the best possible way. He had a feeling he recognized her, but could not remember where. As he thought, he did not hear, or see the metal tentacles moving their way behind him.

"Holy crap man," Max said between breaths, his hands on his hips. "That was a total rush. Is it always like that when you run?"

"Sure is," Flash said. He stood there, breathing regularly. "But that was only a short jog around the city."

"What? We must have traveled at least thirty miles," Max said in astonishment.

"Yea, a short jog," Flash said as he turned and shrugged his shoulders. "This is the place J'onn said he was able to pick up the signature," Flash pointed to the large rickety warehouse in front of them.

"Flash, you check out the area while I get up there and look in," Max said.

"Got it," Flash agreed.

"But just make sure you do it as quietly as possible. I don't want to scare the being off." With a nod Flash took off. Max walked towards the warehouse. Suddenly, Max was stopped by a red blur. "That was quick."

"They don't call me 'The Fastest Man Alive' for nothing," Flash said with a smile.

"Right," Max said. Without warning, Max took a hold of Flash's left are and jumped. Landing on the roof some thirty feet up, Flash was unsteady on his feet for the first time in a while. Max lifted his finger up in front of his lips to tell Flash to stay quiet. Both men made their way to the large windows a few feet away. Kneeling down, Max peered down into the old worn warehouse. He and Flash could hear an insane laughter coming from inside.

Flash leaned over to Max and whispered, "And that would be the Joker."

"You're kidding me," Max said as he stared at the laughing madman. He looked to the left of the Joker and noticed a scrawny man with worn clothing and a mask. "And let me guess, that thing is a Scarecrow?"

Flash nodded. Max's eyes widened. He was just kidding at the name. Just then Flash motioned to Max to look down. Nearly just below then and to the left was none other than Batman. But something was wrong. Batman was being carried out from the shadows by a strange humanoid robot with very long tentacles, two of them wrapped around The Dark Knight as if he were tied up with rope.

"And here to join in on the fun is none other than Bat-freak himself," Scarecrow announced in his dry raspy voice. Joker looked up from his laughing fit and began to laugh almost like he was taunting Batman.

"So Batsy," Joker began as he walked up to Batman. "You like the toy I picked up from Cadmus? I got to say, I must shop there more often, they have such great goodies." Joker tapped his cane on the metal tentacles that were wrapped around Batman. "Now you must tell me, who's the new chick? Trying to get a hero to impersonate Poison Ivy with a heavy metal fashion sense?"

Batman glanced over at the woman. Under his cowl, Batman's eyes widened for a brief moment.

"Don't know her, Joker," Batman said plainly. "What are you and the Scarecrow up to? None of the chemicals you stole have anything to do with either of you."

Joker began to laugh again. "Oh, I can't believe Bat-dunce can't figure out what we're up to Scarecrow! This is priceless! HAhahahaahahhaaa!"

Up on the roof, Flash and Max watched on as Joker laughed and taunted Batman.

"I'll run inside and take out the thugs and you try and free Batman," Flash whispered to Max.

"How are you going to get inside," Max asked him. Flash pointed to a door that led to the metal walkway that went underneath the window inside. Flash walked over to the door and reached for the knob. Max focused in on the door and noticed something move. "Flash," Max tried to warn him, but was too late when he stood. Flash was misted with a cloud of chemicals.

"Oh no, Scarecrow's fear toxin," Flash said as he coughed and struggled around, waving the cloud away from his face. Flash stumbled and tripped over a small pipe. Losing his balance, Max tried his best to catch him. All that proved was having both of them fell and crash through the ceiling window they were just looking into.

Everyone in the warehouse was startled by the sudden shattering of glass fro the roof. Everyone, besides Batman and the woman turned to watch a well known Crimson Speedster and an unknown man crash through and fall onto a group of covered crates.

Without hesitation, every available thug began to rush over to capture the Speedster and the man who just crashed in. Flash was quickly snatched up by two of the men dressed in black. Max, who took the blunt of the fall, was picked up by two of Joker's men.

"Well, ain't this a swell treat for me today," Joker laughed as he looked upon two more captives. "Is today my birthday and no one told me?"

"Careful Joker," Scarecrow warned him. "Flash was dosed with my fear toxin. Why do you think he hasn't vibrated out of the men's grip and knocked everyone senseless?"

"Oooo, good point," Joker said as he leaned in to look at Flash. Flash was shaking his head and sweating profusely as his fears took hold. "Well, that takes care of one pain in my keester." Joker walked over to Max and began to look him over. "Now why in the world would the flash be hanging around a simple nobody like you," Joker asked Max.

Max gave a slight shrug. "Don't know, I was looking for direction to the nearest psych ward." Joker looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, you must know the best ones in town. I mean, look at you. You must have psychiatrists lining up willing to study the freak that you are."

Batman's eyes, for the second time that night, widened. He was shocked at what Max was saying to a psychotic killer. He was cursing at Max in his mind for doing such stupid things.

The woman turned her head at Max's voice. She could not see him, but she wanted to hear him.

"Sorry, chum, but no one makes jokes here, unless I tell them," Joker said in all seriousness.

"Sorry, didn't know you had the capital take on all the bad jokes in town," Max said with a slight grin.

Joker straightened up. He turned around, as if to leave, but turned back suddenly and brought the cane down across the side of Max's head. Little did Max know, some of the toxin that was all over Flash had rubbed off onto his skin. Now, with a fresh long cut from the cane, the fear toxin began making its slow journey into Max's system.

Joker looked at Max as blood began dripping down the side of his head. Joker brought the now broken cane up and sighed.

"Well, now I need a new cane," Joker said with a short giggle and threw the cane away into the darkness of the warehouse. "That means its time to go shopping boys," Joker called out into the warehouse. All together, all the hired thugs began cheering.

"And Batman, those chemicals we stole," Joker said as he walked up to Batman, who was still in the tight wrappings of the robot's tentacles. Behind him, Max began to shake his head. Though the long cut was healing over quickly, something else was beginning to take over. "Let's just say that many a people are going to be a part of my new experimental laughing gas. This time it's new and improved!" Joker began to laugh as two large tanker trucks pulled into the warehouse. Joker strutted over to the trucks when a thought came to mind. "Oh, and since you so love to tell jokes," Joker began as he walked over to Max, who now had his hands tied together behind his back and tied to his ankles. "Now's a good time to leave you with a smile," Joker said as he pointed a small flower on his lapel towards Max. With a cloud of green gas, Max began to cough. "Now, let's get this party rolling!" Joker said as he jumped onto the side of one of the trucks' cab. Each tanker truck backed out of the warehouse and headed into Gotham.

Batman began to think why Joker or the Scarecrow did not do anything to him before they left. It was not like either one of them to leave him tied up, they would have left some trick he would have to work out of. He looked over at Max and saw him coughing. Max was sweating profusely as his body tried its hardest to fight the Joker's laughing gas. Max fell onto his left side and he curled up into the fetal position.

"So, what insane hell did I manage to walk into,' the woman asked to no one in particular.

"Who are you," Batman asked, showing no emotion. He did not like other heroes in his territory unless he allowed it. And he especially did not like having unknown heroes appearing in his territory either.

"I go by the name of Rhea Pyre," the woman said as she twisted her hands in her restraints.

"Fire Goddess," Batman said plainly. "Is that what your ability allows you to control?"

The woman turned her head towards Batman. She gave him a quizzical look. With a flick of a finger, part of her glove began to change shape. Her index finger changed to form a razor sharp blade. Cutting through her restraints, she quickly untied herself.

"No, I go by Rhea Pyre," she began as she stood up to face Batman, "because my nickname I was given was Rhea. And what do you mean ability?" She stood in front of the captive Batman with her arms crossed under her breasts.

"Before I got here, I picked up a unique energy signature should not exist on Earth… this Earth."

The woman raised an eyebrow as she listened to Batman.

"Tell me," she asked, "what exactly did you pick up?" Rhea was beginning to wonder about this masked man and who the other one was. She could not see his face as his hair had hidden his features.

"You have a Mendara," Batman pointed out flatly.

With speed not even Batman could have matched, a katana blade formed out from the forearm of her suit and she held it up across Batman's neck.

"How do you know of such a thing," She demanded. Her voice was cold and calculating. Batman began to wonder if that was how he sounded when interrogating a criminal. "This world should not know of The Sacred."

"I have only known of it for a short time, maybe a few months."

"How did you know of The Sacred," Rhea demanded coolly.

Batman watched her eyes. He could see her thinking of was to get the information out of him.

"He has it as well," Batman said as he pointed his right hand towards the now shaking form of Max.

Rhea stepped back from Batman, lowering the katana blade from his neck. She looked over at Max.

"There is no way," she began. The katana blade slowly shrunk back into the forearm of her suit.

"Yes," Batman said. Batman tried to wiggle something out of his right gauntlet, but the tentacles would not allow the object he needed to move.

Suddenly, rope fragments sprayed across Batman and at Rhea. Rhea blocked the fragments from her face with her forearm. A few of the threads managed to scratch Batman's cheek. Rhea and Batman turned and looked at Max. The rope that was once around his wrists and ankles was now gone. Max began to stand, his body shivering from the toxins in his system. Rhea began to feel a strange connection to this man. She watched as Max stood his back to her.

"Max," Batman asked called to him. Max did not respond.

Max stood up with a slight slump. Raising his right arm, Max pointed towards Batman. Before Batman could figure out what Max was doing, the robot behind him released its tight grip on Batman and allowed him to stand. Batman shrugged off the tentacles. Rhea, though, watched with wide eyes at what Max had done. Batman saw this and turned around. There on the floor, sparking was the robot, sliced with what looked like something hot enough to melt the metal.

Batman stood there studying the robot remains. Something was not feeling right.

"Bat Man, or however you are," Rhea began as she stepped back a few steps. "Slowly make your way to me."

"It's Batman," he corrected her. And before he asked why, he looked at Max. Something did not look right about him. He began to slowly walk towards Rhea as he kept an eye on Max.

"This is not right," Rhea said. Batman heard fear and disbelief in her voice. "This is wrong. This should not be possible!"

Max let out a low groan.

"Joker," Max said in a low menacing, almost primitive moan.

And he began to giggle.

J'onn was busy monitoring Superman, Wonder Woman, and Steel as they were battling Metallo and a group of fake Metallos. Metallo had created multiples of him, in robot form only, and began a crime spree that ended just outside Washington D.C. Steel was busy finishing of the last few fakes that attacked him. Wonder Woman was doing the same while Superman took on the real deal. Metallo was opening and closing the cover to the Kryptonite rock that powered his body. He was smarter this time around not to have it exposed the entire time. But thanks to a few 'gifts' he took from Intergang, he had kryptonite eye beams and a gun in each forearm that fired off bursts of kryptonite energy.

Metallo had both guns firing at a cowering Superman. He gloated over the Man of Steel as Superman grew ever weaker from the only poison that could kill him.

"I don't think so Metal head," Steel yelled as he threw his heavy hammer. The hammer impacted Metallo's left elbow, shattering the joint. The hammer did not stop and went through Metallo's other elbow, completely cutting off the power to his weapons.

"Damn you," cursed Metallo. He turned to fire his energy beams at Steel. Metallo was not thinking as he left the door that covered the kryptonite rock open. Wonder Woman quickly picked up a dislocated robot arm and threw it as if it were a spear. The dislocated arm shattered the rock and pierced Metallo completely through, giving his the look of an extra arm growing from his chest. "No!" Metallo yelled as he began to quickly power down.

Metallo was taken care of once again.

"You doing ok there Kal," Wonder Woman asked Superman.

"I will be in a few minutes," Superman said with a clear sign of pain in his voice.

"Watchtower to Wonder Woman," J'onn called over the League ear comm.

"Go ahead J'onn," Wonder Woman answered.

"I just got a call from Batman," J'onn began. "He needs some help in Gotham."

Superman's eyes widened. "Did I just hear you right J'onn," Superman asked, dumbfounded at what he just said.

"Flash is already there and is trying to get as many civilians out of harms way. He is going a bit slower than usual, seeing as his body quickly metabolized Scarecrow's fear toxin."

"What, Batman needs our help with crowd control for something," Steel asked.

"No, he need help stopping Max," J'onn said. All three heroes looked at each other in surprise.

"Location to location teleport now J'onn," Superman said immediately.

In the streets of Gotham, two tanker trucks began releasing the toxic concoction created by Joker and Scarecrow. Each one stood atop their own tanker truck with a hose releasing the Joker's new 'Laughing Fear' gas. Each villain and their employed help had on their own gas masks to hide them from the affects. Joker was dancing and hopping all over the top of his truck as he sprayed the toxin. The liquid, when meeting the air became a gas and seeped into the surrounding building. People were running everywhere around them in a laughing panic. Scarecrow stood in a crouch as he sprayed the populous with his hose.

No one was safe.

"And the shrink told me to laugh at my fears to make them go away," Joker laughed out loud. "Looks like they wont go away now! HAHAhahahhahaaaa!" Joker laughed with his terrible voice. "Well looky here," Joker said as he recognized the psychiatrist from Arkham. "Looks like you were wrong Doc," Joker said as he hosed down the doctor.

"No Joker, don't," the man yelled as he was covered in the toxin. Instantly, the doctor began running in fear with a smile on his face.

Joker watched as the doctor only made it two blocks before he dropped dead. Joker cackled at the joke. He told the doc he would have the last laugh; and he did.

Just then, an other worldly scream echoed through the dark streets of Gotham. Scarecrow stopped and turned off his hose. The Joker, enjoying the fruits of his joke, stopped laughing and turned his hose off.

"What the hell was that," Scarecrow yelled towards Joker. Joker shrugged.

"I don't know," Joker yelled back. "Maybe Batman got his little Batman caught in his Bat-zipper." Joker began to laugh again. "Come on Scarecrow, we have so much more to do in so little time. We need to make sure everyone laughs at our fantastic joke." Joker was about to turn his hose on again when he noticed something. People were beginning to run towards their slow moving trucks of death. Again, the other worldly scream/roar echoed through the streets. "Ok, who's ruining my fun now?" Joker was not at all happy. People that were already affected by the toxin were running through the streets. Many climbed over vehicles to run away from whatever they were running from. "Punch, Judy," Joker called out to his two faithful henchmen. Each muscle-bound man opened the doors to the truck. "Go see what's ruining my fun."

With a nod, each man reached into the cab of the truck and pulled out a rifle. Each man climbed out of the truck and ran back the way they had come. Joker watch as the two henchmen ran through the crowd towards whatever was interrupting Joker's fun. Four streets down, Joker watched on as both men turned and ran down the street. Shortly after, the sound of automatic gun fire filled the air.

"There now, that should do it," Joker said with a quick nod of his head. He turned around and faced Scarecrow. He turned around too soon. Scarecrow lifted his left arm and pointed back to where Punch and Judy had run. Joker looked at him with a confused look, tilting his head. He turned around to see Judy lodged in the side of a delivery truck. He watched on as Punch soared through the air, impacting the same truck. The force of the impact caused the truck to tip over. "Now that had to hurt,"

"You didn't call up Bane did you Joker," Scarecrow called out to him.

"No," Joker said as he watched more and more people running towards them. Joker began to see people who were not yet affected by the toxin running towards them. "Now this isn't funny," Joker said, anger covering his face. "There's something that is actually causing people to run at us."

"I know, this is not making sense,"

"JOKER!!!" a man's voice yelled out into the night air.

"That wasn't Batman," Scarecrow said to Joker. Scarecrow and The Joker watched on as people began falling over, unconscious.

Three bright blue light pillars pierced the night close to Batman's location. When the light dissipated, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Steel appeared.

"What's going on, Batman," Superman asked his friend. The three noticed the green skinned woman with crimson read hair. "Who's this?"

"She's the one Max has been searching for," Batman said as he took vitals from a woman lying down on the sidewalk. Just then, the three heroes took in the horror around them.

"Great Hera," Wonder Woman exclaimed. "What happened here?"

"Max is what happened," Flash said as he stopped with a person over each shoulder. He eased each person down to the ground.

"Are they…" Steel began.

"No," Rhea said as she was checking the vitals on another a blond teenager. She was reading the findings on a small built-in computer on her left forearm. "They all are unconscious."

"And what's adding onto this is that most of these people were affected by The Joker's and Scarecrow's new toxin.

Off in the distance, a loud other-worldly scream/roar echoed through the night.

"Great Hera!"

"What was that," Superman asked. The scream sent chills up his spine.

"That would be Max," Batman said as he stood up, his cape fell to cover his front. "From what happened, he was a victim of a face full of Joker's laughing gas. But before he was gassed, he and Flash fell through the roof of the warehouse Joker and Scarecrow were hiding. Flash was dosed with Scarecrow's fear toxin. Max was under Flash as they crashed through the ceiling and onto a pile of crates. Some of Scarecrow's fear toxin rubbed off onto Max's head and hair. Joker proceeded to hit Max over the head with his cane, causing a long cut across the side of Max's head. The toxin had direct path into his blood stream. I could see he was beginning to suffer from some of the affects of the toxin when Joker gassed him."

"Then we began to start with the victims," Rhea said as she walked up to the five heroes.

"Who are you," Superman asked with a kind tone.

"My name is Rhea Pyre," she replied, "Chosen One and keeper of The Sacred." She bowed slightly to Superman and Wonder Woman. Right then, four hovering robot, with two people each, floated down from the surrounding buildings. Rhea turned and pointed over to where the blond teenager was lying. "Why?" Rhea asked out.

"She has the Mendara just as Max does," Batman said plainly. "Though she only has a few abilities that span over a several things."

"Your Batman is true to what he says," Rhea said with a slight bow of her head. "I was chosen to be the keeper and guardian of The Sacred, or the Mendara as it is secretly known."

"Strange, you look very familiar to me," Wonder Woman said as she studied Rhea's features. "It's as if I have seen you somewhere before."

"I do not see how," Rhea said politely. Two more hovering bots floated to Rhea. She pointed over to the same area as the last four. "I have never seen you or any of you in my life. It was not until I was thrust upon this Earth from my own that I first began witnessing events and people that I thought were sure to have The Sacred. I sent out many RATSS to take data from this world so I could understand why so many beings on this world have such powers."

"You sent rodents out to collect data," Superman asked, confused.

"Not rats, R-A-T-S-S," Rhea corrected Superman. "It stands for Robotic Avionic Tactical Sensor Surveyors, RATSS. I believe your Flash here," Rhea pointed to The Flash as he ran by to drop off two more people, "had an encounter with one of them shortly after I arrived on this world."

"See, I told you I had something following me," Flash said with a bit of a snip in his voice.

"Yes," Rhea said with a sigh. "I have been gathering data from all over your world. I have been trying to collect it as quietly as possible, but it was not until I came across this city when I picked up on an anomaly." Rhea lifted her right forearm and, out from the metal plate, formed a robot about the size of a soccer ball. Flash began pointing at the robot, telling everyone it was that robot he saw. "I have been reading rifts all over the planet, but one here formed and became stationary for over a day."

"I did not pick up on any such rifts in this area," Batman said, rebutting what Rhea was saying.

"That is because your sensors are too primitive by my standards to pick up the one I had," Rhea said. Under Batman's cowl, his eyes narrowed at her comment. He did not like to be told his equipment was primitive. "Do not worry, Batman. I will help you with upgrading your sensors and equipment."

Off in the distance, Max's voice echoed towards the heroes as he called out for the Joker.

"I think we may have a problem," Superman said. He turned around and used his x-ray vision to find Max.

What he saw sent chills down his spine. Only a hundred yards away from the Joker and his two trucks was Max. People were falling over as Max came within ten feet of them. He could not understand it. He saw nothing.

"Let me guess," Superman began, "Max is the cause of all of this?" Superman waved a hand, pointing out the many unconscious civilians around them.

"They were all affected by Joker's new toxin," Batman said. "But none of them show any type of sign they were exposed. It's as if the toxin itself was either neutralized somehow or was forcefully removed from their bodies."

"Oh dear," Superman said as he watched Max. "Joker just ordered every thug he and Scarecrow have to attack Max."

"They're in for a bad surprise," Rhea said as she shook her head. She felt sorry for the criminals.

Max walked towards the truck with a slump. Sweat had matted down his long hair against his face. Max tried to hold in the laughter and the fear. But what he was seeing from the fear toxin was not making him scared, it was making him angry. His face hurt as his lips were spread out in a broad smile that seemed too big for his face.

"Men, take care of the trash," Joker ordered out to his men. Scarecrow gave out the same order. They did not like having someone mess with their fearful fun. "But it does look like I put a smile on your face," The Joker said as he noticed Max's large grin. He began to laugh as a group of his men aimed their high powered automatic rifles at Max. With a thunderous start, bullets flew towards Max.

Max simply straightened and let his head fall to the side, his hair covering half his face. The half that was not covered showed Max's large grin and insane anger inside his eyes.

Four feet in front of him, Max had simply stopped the incoming fire. Each bullet stopped, as if it had encountered and invisible wall. After the eleven men finished off a full clip each, they stared at the bullets.

"Now this isn't any fun," Joker said with a frown. "You're supposed to stop them with your body, not like this," he raised his left hand and pointed to the stopped rounds. "That's just cheating."

"I don't care what you think, Mime Boy," Max said as he stared at The Joker. Anger flared in The Joker's eyes. "And thanks to you, sanity is not an option any more." Max glared at The Joker.

Suddenly, music from a harmonica began to echo through the street. The music sounded almost like a train. Then, a banjo joined in.

"Where the hell is that God awful music coming from," The Joker yelled out. The twang of the banjo and the harmonica was like nails on a chalkboard to him. None of his men could see anyone playing the instruments.

"Like I said, Joe m'boy," Max said with a southern accent. "Sanity has left the building and is on the bus leaving town." Max began to move his right foot in tempo to the music. Then, the two instruments appeared from behind Max, along with a fiddle. Max took a hold of the fiddle and began playing along with the other two floating instruments.

"Will you kill this son of a bitch now," Joker yelled out at his men. All of them looked at The Joker and back at Max. In a massive group, the men charged Max. Max threw the fiddle to the side, stopping in mid air a few feet away. All three instruments continued to play as Max stared down the large group that resembled an entire professional football team. Max began to stomp his right foot with the beep of the song.

Then, with the first punch, Max began to sing as he took on every man there:

_If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe_

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

He came to town like a midwinter storm  
He rode through the fields so handsome and strong  
His eyes was his tools and his smile was his gun  
But all he had come for was having some fun

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

Superman looked on in disbelief. He watched as Max took on half of The Joker's force, over fifty men, never losing the beat to the song he was singing.

"We need to help Max now," Superman said as he faced the others. "You won't believe this, but he's singing some weird song. And I think he's lost it."

Batman heard this. "What was his expression," he asked Superman.

"He looked insane," Superman said with a bit of a smirk. "He's really pissing off The Joker."

"This isn't good," Batman said. He immediately took off running down the street. Superman looked at Wonder Woman and Rhea. All three took off after Batman.

_If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe_

He brought disaster wherever he went  
The hearts of the girls was to hell broken sent  
They all ran away so nobody would know  
and left only men cause of Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe  


_If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe  
I'd been married long time ago  
Where did you come from where did you go  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe_

Max stopped singing as the last man fell unconscious at his feet. The three instruments dissipated as if they were made of air. Max stood there, silent. He reached behind and pulled out a guitar, and began to play a haunting rift:

_I feel so good I feel so numb, yeah  
_

"Will you just die," Joker yelled out. "Kill him!" The rest of the hired criminals took off towards Max. Max did not miss a beat. Creating an avatar, Max sprinted towards the last of The Joker's men. This time, the avatar had split and became a band (forming the instruments they needed from themselves), playing a hauntingly scary song as it played out into the darkness of Gotham. This song, unlike the previous one, seemed right at home in Gotham.

_  
Yeah! Mud bath, acrobat, a midnight drive  
Everybody's slippin', everybody survive  
Radio talk show try to project  
Everything you need when you gotta connect  
_

At the end of every line, Max knocked down two men cold.

_  
Come on, come on, come on, you feel it  
Come on, come on, come on, you see it  
Come on, come on, come on, you wanna make it all right  
_

Max began to fight in rhythm to the song and the lyrics. When he was not punching or kicking or throwing, he stood and swayed to the music. Joker's laughing gas kept the broad maniacal grin over his face. Bodies flew and men fought against Max to avail.

"Just die," Joker yelled. He reached into his coat and pulled out two more revolvers. This time, they were no joke props. He began firing at Max. A few of the round hit Joker's men, but he didn't care. The bullets that did not make contact with any of Joker's men hit they target with deadly force. Blood splattered from Max's wounds but he just kept going. Blood stained his shift and drops flew with every punch and movement he made.

_  
Come on, come on, come on, you feel it  
Come on, come on, come on, you see it  
Come on, come on, come on, you wanna make it all right_

Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so bad I feel so numb yeah!  
Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so good I feel so numb yeah!

Sugar sweet brainiac on your neck  
Get in to tomorrow man I gotta reflect  
A blue world green girl up the street  
Gotta wake her it 'cause I don't wanna dream

Come on come on come on you feel it  
Come on come on come on you see it  
Come on come on come on you wanna make it all right

Come on come on come on you feel it  
Come on come on come on you see it  
Come on come on come on you wanna make it all right

Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so bad I feel so numb yeah!  
Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so good I feel so numb yeah!

Yeah! Django drag a coughing nail across your back  
Everybody want it, gotta take it back  
Brain trash porn flash what is why  
Look into forever revolutionize

Come on come on come on you feel it  
Come on come on come on you see it  
Come on come on come on you wanna make it all right

Come on come on come on you feel it  
Come on come on come on you see it  
Come on come on come on you wanna make it all right

Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so bad I feel so numb yeah!  
Blacken the sun! What have I done?  
I feel so good I feel so numb yeah!

Where do I run! What have I done?  
I feel so bad I feel so numb yeah!  
Where do I run! What have I done?  
I feel so good I feel so numb yeah!

Though the song was over, the ghostly band began to play another song that sent chills up Joker's spine. This time, the avatars Max had formed twisted and mutilated themselves into hideous demonic creatures. Max was no longer singing:

_Dead I am the one  
Exterminate his son  
Slipping through the trees  
Strangling the breeze_

Dead I am the sky  
Watchin' angels fry  
While they slowly turn  
Conquering the worm

Dig through the ditches and  
Burn through the witches  
An' slam in the back of my  
Dragula  


Max began to make his way through the thugs towards the Joker and Scarecrow. Each one was visibly angry at the lack of effort the hired help was putting forth in taking Max down. Even the bullet wounds were not slowing Max down.

Up on one of the taller apartment buildings, a loan man peered through a long range lens. The man shot picture after picture while a hd-video camera fed a live feed into a wireless satellite router.

On the other end of the feed sat a man at his desk. His city was going on with their daily lives as he worked high above them in his own skyscraper. Three of the walls to his office were nothing but floor to ceiling bullet-proof windows. In case of some other attack, lead lined thick metal plates would slide down, protecting everything in his office. He had his elbows on top of a few papers he was going over with his fingers intertwined. He rested his chin on his folded thumbs as he watched with fascination at the strange performance. The man smile at what he was seeing. The information he ordered to be gathered brought up some interesting facts about this person he was watching. He reached forwards and pressed a button on his phone.

"Yes Mr. Luthor," a female's voice answered over the speaker.

"Get me Amanda Waller," Lex Luthor, multi-billionaire and owner of most of Metropolis (in one manner or another), said. "We have a meeting that she is missing."

"Right away, sir," the female voice replied obediently.

_Dig through the ditches and  
Burn through the witches  
An' slam in the back of my  
Dragula_

Dead I am the pools  
Spreading from the fools  
We can watch you knead  
Nowhere as you bleed

Dead I am the rat  
Feast upon the cat  
Tender is the fur  
Dying as you purr

Dig through the ditches and  
Burn through the witches  
An' slam in the back of my  
Dragula

Dig through the ditches and  
Burn through the witches  
An' slam in the back of my  
Dragula

Do it baby  
Do it baby

Do it baby  
Do it baby  
Burn like an animal

Dead I am the life  
Dig into the skin  
Knuckle crack the bone  
Twenty one to win

Dead I am the dog  
Hound of hell you cry  
Devil on your back  
I can never die  


Joker and Scarecrow watched as Max fought through their men.

"I do believe that it is time for us to depart," Scarecrow said as he leaned towards The Joker on his left. "The party crasher's friends have finally arrived." Scarecrow pointed down the street. Batman, Rhea, Superman, and Wonder Woman were all on their way towards them.

"My dear raggedly friend," the Joker said as he rested his right arm over Scarecrow's slender shoulders. "I do believe you are right." The Joker smiled. "But let us leave this party on a high note shall we?" Joker reached into a pocket on the left side of his coat. He pulled out a simple looking toy robot. Winding the key on its back, Joker placed the seemingly innocent toy next to the open connection to the tanker. With a splash, Joker began giggling and dancing, bringing his knees up high as he and Scarecrow began to sneak away from their ruined crime.

_  
Dig through the ditches and  
Burn through the witches  
An' slam in the back of my  
Dragula  
_

The band stopped playing as the last man fell to the ground with a broken and bleeding nose and unconscious. Batman and Rhea stopped next to the distorted demonic band.

"JOKER," Max called in insane anger. "GET BACK HERE!" Max walked forward as he watched Scarecrow and the Joker begin to escape. "We're not finished!"

"I do beg to differ," Joker called out as he began to run. "Hope you get a bang out of my going away gift." Joker began laughing as he ran. Max stopped next to the closest tank truck, the one Joker placed a toy robot in. Max stood there as he looked at the truck, his hair wet and matted down against his crazed face.

Back at the demonic band, a good two hundred feet away from Max and the tanker trucks, Batman and Rhea stood as Superman and Wonder Woman landed.

"This is not good," Batman said as he studied the avatars. "I watched as Joker placed something inside the tanker near Max."

"That won't be good," Superman said. "I can't see inside the tanker."

Rhea watched as Max stood there, his head tilted off to the left. She watched him as he lifted his head and turned around to face them. Rhea had not seen Max's face, only the back of his head, so this was the first time she would see this strange and dangerous man these people called friend. When she saw the contorted smile over his face, her eyes widened.

"Dear Gods watch over us," Rhea exclaimed. She recognized the man. "Beloved?" Wonder Woman turned to Rhea at what she said. Now she recognized her.

No sooner did she finish, the tanker truck filled with Joker's volatile concoction exploded in a violent explosion, engulfing Max and everything within fifty feet, knocking Batman, Wonder Woman and Rhea off their feet. Superman was the only one left standing, his cape flapping behind him from the shockwave. Next to them, Max's demonic group vanished in the breeze.

From the roar of the inferno, the heroes and Rhea heard a mind chilling laughter.


	10. Chapter 10

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Rhea stood there as the trucks burned in the inferno. The roar of the flames was deafening. Rhea brought up a hand to cover her mouth in horror. Max had been standing mere feet from the closest truck.

"Dear Gods," Wonder Woman exclaimed. "Max was-"

Before she could finish, Superman held up his hand to quiet her.

"Do you hear what I am hearing," Superman asked her. Wonder Woman listened.

"Is that…"

"Laughter," Batman and Rhea both said in unison. "But Joker is nowhere near here," Batman said. He recognized the laugh as belonging to The Clown Prince of Crime.

"Dear God," Superman gasped.

Inside the blazing inferno, a loan figure stood with their head tilted off to the side. The laughter was getting louder and louder. Soon, it even challenged the roar of the inferno.

"That can't be," The Flash said as he ran up to meet his teammates. He heard the explosion across town and immediately headed towards the flames. Flash and everyone looked on as the flames hid and revealed parted of the shadowed man. A glimpse of a hand appeared its fingers long and claw-like. The right hand was raised as if the man tried to wave it through the flames as if they were steam. Each finger was longer, more reptilian almost. Through the flames something seemed to whip around. "Is that a tail," The Flash asked as he watched the figure.

"I can't begin to understand what I am seeing," Superman said as he looked upon his friend in the fire.

"I don't know if anyone noticed," Rhea said as she too watched the man in the flames, "but where's the heat?" Everyone turned to Rhea, their eyes wide in realization at what she just said. "Those are not regular flames."

Max lowered his hand and turned to his left. He looked to the left and stared at the group of heroes. All the heroes, except Batman who kept a straight face and stood tall, took a step back at the crazed expression covering Max's face. His eyes shone a deep fire red as the edges of his mouth seemed to stretch to the point of tearing his facial muscles. Max turned his head back and looked down. He raised his hands and stared at his draconic hands and forearms. Again, Max began to laugh like The Joker. He laughed so hard, he threw his head back as his laughter carried out into the night. Max arched backwards with his maniacal laugh.

"Great Hera," Wonder Woman exclaimed.

Without notice, Max shot up into the air with speed that only Superman, Wonder Woman, and a very select few other heroes could match. The flames that engulfed the street followed Max up into the heavens in a fiery comet trail. All that was left were the burnt and charred remains of the two tanker trucks, burnt bodies of a dozen of the hire thugs, and a wide area of melted black top, but nothing else was damaged. The glass from the shattered windows was gone from the streets and the windows were as when they were before the explosions.

Quick acting, Superman and Wonder Woman shot up into the sky after Max. They stayed clear of the column of flame as they flew to meet Max. Neither wanted to find out what the first would do to them. Superman did not know if it was magic for magic could hurt him. Wonder Woman would be burned as well.

"Max," Superman called out in the night towards Max. "What the heck is going on?"

At this point, Superman and Wonder Woman were level with Max three hundred feet above the street. Below them, the flames that followed Max into the air created a blanket of fire under the three.

Max floated in the air. Superman and Wonder Woman could now see the drastic changed in Max's form. His arms had grown longer and resembled reptile, even draconic, limbs. The same with his legs; they had grown and Max no longer had any shoes. His legs grew out into hind legs of an animal with reptile skin. And they had not thought wrong; Max now had a long draconic tail.

"Do you feel frightened or angry," Max growled his back to the two heroes.

Both Superman and Wonder Woman looked at each other with wide eyes. It had been the first time Max had spoken after the explosion. His voice was deeper and more animalistic.

"Max, we can help you if you'd-" Wonder Woman began as she began to float towards her friend, reaching out with her right arm.

"Answer me," Max yelled out in a roared.

Wonder Woman stopped and lowered her arm. With a sudden whip of his tail, a long cut appeared down the outside of her right arm all the way to the enchanted gauntlet on her forearm. Blood began to seep from the sudden wound. Wonder Woman backed off quickly and let her arm lay limp at her side. Superman moved next to her as he took off his cape. Wrapping her arm with the cape, Superman looked into Wonder Woman's eyes.

"We are concerned for you," Superman said as he looked out towards Max.

"Hehehe. Good, then you will not have to worry," Max growled. "You will not be touched." Superman and Wonder Woman looked at Max with quizzical looks. Then, Max's maniacal laugh started up again. "Looks like I am flaming," he said as he pointed to the blanket of fire below them. The two heroes looked down at the flames. With a final laugh, Max was gone. Superman and Wonder Woman both looked around frantically. Superman used his telescopic vision and tried to see if Max had flown off. They had not seen the white glow that was released when Max opened his door.

"He's," Superman began.

"Gone," Wonder Woman finished.

With the disappearance of Max, the blanket of flames soon dissipated into the night leaving Gotham to its dark gloomy night.

Down street side, Batman and the others watched as the flames dissipated.

"What did you mean back there, Rhea," Batman asked out. Rhea looked at the Cape Crusader with a raised eyebrow. Batman looked at her with narrowed eyes. "What did you mean by calling Max 'Beloved' earlier?" Batman began to walk towards her. "What did you mean?"

Rhea looked at him. She would not shrink back at the gloomy figure of Batman.

"Because he is," Rhea said plainly. Batman stopped two feet from her and looked down into her eyes.

"Say what," The Flash called out in shock.

"What's going on," Superman asked as he and Wonder Woman landed near their friends.

"Max is Rhea's beloved," he blurted out before anyone else could speak.

"Great Hera, now I remember why I recognized you," Wonder Woman exclaimed. Rhea took her eyes off The Dark Knight and stared at Wonder Woman. "You look exactly like Rebecca."

Before anyone could register her movement, Rhea was standing in front of Wonder Woman with a long narrow blade held up to her throat and a tight grip on the upper part of Wonder Woman's injured arm. Batman took a fighting stance with a bat-r-rang raised.

"How dare you say that name," Rhea sneered in anger. "You have no right to live for saying that name!" Suddenly, the anger covering Rhea's face had melted away. The blade at Wonder Woman's throat slowly lowered, leaving only a very small and bleeding scratch. Rhea swayed for a moment and then fell down as her knees gave way. "What have you done to me," Rhea asked as she sat with her legs bent off to the right.

"Ok, what the hell is going on," Wally asked as Batman and Superman relaxed. "We haven't done anything. And what in the world happened to Max?" Wally pointed up into the night air where Max once was.

"I think Max was the cause for you releasing Wonder Woman, Rhea," Superman said as he knelt down next to her. He held out a welcoming hand to help her up. With a dazed look, Rhea reached out and allowed Superman to help her up. She raised her free hand and placed it on her head as if to steady it from moving.

"I don't understand," Rhea said with a softer tone than before.

"It was one of the things Max said just before he disappeared," Wonder Woman said with a soothing voice. The scratch on her neck had stopped bleeding and had healed quickly, but the wound to her arm needed medical attention soon. She looked at Rhea and the others, "Max asked if we felt anger or frightened. We said no."

"And he said that we did not have to worry and that the others would not be touched," Superman said as he gave Rhea a concerned smile.

"And what do you mean by 'not be touched'," Flash asked.

"I think we just witnessed what he meant," Batman said as he looked at Rhea. "Tell us, do you feel anger right now?"

Rhea looked at him and began to think. "I did," Rhea said as she looked down and then over to Wonder Woman. "But as soon as I felt it when you said that name, it began to leave me."

"What," Wally asked, lost at what everyone was talking about.

"Wally, for being the fastest man alive, you sure are slow," Batman quipped. Flash shot Batman an angry glare.

"Hey," Flash said as the anger from Batman's comment seemed to just go away. "So that was what he meant." Superman and Wonder Woman looked at him confused. "My anger seemed to just seep away."

"Max drained it from you," Batman said as if it was common knowledge. Everyone turned to him in complete confusion. "In Max's current condition, he is suffering from Scarecrow's fear toxin and Joker's laughing gas. Combined with what the Joker had done and the unstable reaction between the chemicals and the crystalline in Max's system, he is siphoning the anger and fear from those he is near."

Up in one of the Watchtower's med bays, J'onn finished wrapping Wonder Woman's arm in clean bandages.

"I am sorry for my actions Wonder Woman," Rhea said as she sat on the bed next to Wonder Woman.

"Why did you get angry at the mention of the name," Wonder Woman asked politely.

Rhea took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Where I am from, we have two names. When we are born, our parents give us a name. But when we reach the age of twelve, we are inducted in a sacred family ritual. Each family line has a special sacred sight they must travel to." Wonder Woman stood up after thanking J'onn. Rhea stood up as well and walked along side Wonder Woman as she left the med bay. "No matter where our family lives in the world, we must travel to this sight and spend our twelfth year searching in meditation and solitude for our given name that is given to every man and woman by the Gods themselves."

"That sounds very interesting indeed," Wonder Woman replied. "Please go on."

"When I said that my nickname was Rhea Pyre, it was not entirely true," Rhea continued as they walked down the corridor. "I was given that name at birth by my parents. I do have a last name, but it is one that is not shared openly."

"And the name I mentioned," Wonder Woman asked as they reached an elevator. When both women were inside, Wonder Woman pressed the fifth floor for the cafeteria.

"I do thank you for not speaking the name, Wonder Woman," Rhea said with a slight bow of her head towards her.

"I saw how the name troubled you in Gotham so I did not want to repeat it to cause you more distress. Besides," Wonder Woman began to smile and laughed a little, "I do not want to be on receiving end of your blade."

Rhea smiled a little at Wonder Woman's joke. She was glad that she was not holding it against her.

"The name you mentioned is what we find for ourselves," Rhea continued. The elevator stopped and the doors opened for the fifth floor. Both ladies walked out as they were greeted with a cafeteria with few league members. "The name is one we hold sacred in our hearts. If we do not find the name within that year, we stay until the name comes to us. The sights that we travel to are all covered in a deep old magic that no being can break. It is said that they were placed on the sights by the Gods themselves on one of their earliest visits to the Earthly plane. And once we are married, we share our name the night of the wedding while in each other's arms."

"That sounds very intriguing, Rhea," Wonder Woman replied. "I myself am from an island where we hold our Gods in utmost honor. I was born from clay that my mother had formed and was given life by the Gods themselves."

"Wow," Rhea said in astonishment. "So we both have backgrounds in deep magic that encircle our lives. My world has many wondrous things, but since coming here, I have begun to witness even more spectacles than I would believe. I never knew any others who could travel the stream that did not have the blessings of the Gods."

Wonder Woman looked at her with confusion.

"Sorry," Rhea said with a smile. "The one called Flash. When I first arrived, I had noticed The Stream was present in this world. I sent a sensor-bot to pick up readings when it encountered The Flash running inside it."

"You are speaking of the Speed Force," Wonder Woman said in realization. "That is what we call it here."

"The Speed Force," Rhea said as she thought for a moment. "It is a very interesting name. It does simplify what it is, but is too plain of a name."

"Just don't say that around The Flash," Wonder Woman said with a smile. "He might get offended." Both women laughed as they sat down at a table. Wonder Woman sat quiet for a moment. "Rhea," she said with a serious tone, "What you said down there about Max…"

"You mean why I called him 'Beloved'," Rhea asked as the smile began to fade from her face. Her eyes shadowed and she lowered her head. "On my world, I am married to a wonderful man who I think the world of. He is so very kind and strong, but would rather talk a person down than begin a fight." Rhea lifted her head up for a moment with a smile. "Sometimes I even think that he was touched by the Gods as I am." Wonder Woman smiled as she heard the description. It almost sounded like her friend Clark. Though he was very strong, he would rather talk about things before getting physical. She looked at Rhea. Tears were freely flowing from her eyes as she thought of her love. "But he was taken, by who I do not know. I was finally getting somewhere with my investigations when I was suddenly shifted here to this world." The look of pure hate covered her face. "The Gods seemed to no longer favor me, though I still carry the 'Mendara" as you call it." Rhea sat silent for a moment. Both women sat there, each one taking a drink from their water glasses. Wonder Woman looked at Rhea for a moment. She could have sworn she saw a sparkle in her right eye.

"Did I just," Wonder Woman began as she pointed to Rhea's eye.

"Sorry, I have been going over my files on the rifts that were occurring on my world," Rhea said. "What you just saw was part of the program running." Wonder Woman was confused once more. "That is one of the things I am gifted with. I have an organic computer inside me. I am able to access many banks of information with simple ease. I was thinking over about the rift that brought me here. I was performing an experiment and found something interesting. I was able to send those beasts you all were fighting when I first arrived back their own worlds. Though I am still at a loss on why I can not send myself back. I am still going over many simulations since we have met. But I feel as if I am missing a good amount of information."

"Then we need to talk with Batman," Wonder Woman said as she stood. "The information you have combined with the information we have in our database could help in getting you home. It might even help Max get home."

"Batman to Wonder Woman," Batman called over the ear comm.

"Speak of the devil," Wonder Woman said as Rhea stood. "Go ahead Batman. We were just leaving to come find you."

"I am in the science lab near the bridge," Batman said plainly. "Bring Rhea with you. I think we might have found Max."

Both women looked at each other and took off running from the cafeteria. "We're on our way Batman. Be there in a few minutes."

Inside the science lab, Batman was busy speaking with The Atom and Ted Kord, the retired Blue Beetle. All three men were going over information about Max.

"There seems to be some strange energies coming from Max," Ted said as he was looking over the data from the league members on the ground. "I have seen readings of magic from Zatanna and even Etegrin. These readings seem to be as different to magic as magic is to science."

"It's because it is," Rhea said as she and Wonder Woman entered the lab.

Ted Kord and The Atom both looked up at the crimson haired beauty. Both men dropped their jaws as the two women walked in.

"Are you some how related to the Amazons," The Atom asked Rhea. Rhea looked at him and turned to Wonder Woman.

"No, she is not," Wonder Woman replied. "She is from another reality outside of our multiverse."

"Is this true," Ted asked out into the room.

"Yes it is," Rhea said with her soft lyrical voice. "I was one of the unfortunate that were forced here through one of the rifts that are occurring all over Earth."

"They are not just on Earth," Batman corrected her. The Green Lantern Corps has readings of the same type rifts from almost every sector they monitor."

"There's more," both women said in unison. Shock covered both their faces.

"How is that possible," Rhea asked.

"We don't know yet," Batman said. "With the information The Corps gave us, they have seen these rifts over the past few hundred years, something they were monitoring on the side without telling us. When The Guardian arrived, he brought along all their data about the rifts since the beginning of their investigation." Batman stood up and walked up to the two women. "They say that the rifts were only windows looking into different realities, nothing could pass through from either side. We have been going over the combined data and have found something that could deal with Max and possibly you as well Rhea."

"What is this information," Rhea asked him.

"The rifts began letting through objects since just before the time Max had appeared," Batman told her.

"And it is showing us that there is something even more immense than our own multiverse," The Atom joined in. "From what I can tell, somehow our multiverse is interacting with another."

"What," Wonder Woman said, breaking her silence. "How is that possible?"

"It should not be at all," Ted said as he joined in with the others. "There seems to be something that The Atom and I have named."

"And what is this new name," Rhea asked, wondering what these men were thinking. She had an idea; her information was compared to what the League had now.

"We have named it the gigaverse," The Atom said with a smile. "The information we are gathering from each rift is adding more and more information that is proving to refine our readings and calculations."

Hearing what they had uncovered sent a chill down Rhea's spine. Batman noticed the sudden change before anyone else. Rhea did not show it, but her eyes betrayed her reaction to what they had uncovered.

"Tell us," Batman said to her as he took a step closer to Rhea.

Rhea stood there silent for a moment as she looked into Batman's eyes. But before she could say anything, a massive explosion occurred at the other end of the lab.

A Boom Tube was opening.

Everyone in the room jumped and turned to the opening of the Boom Tube. Two figures appeared in the Boom Tube.

"Welcome back Barda, Mr. Miracle," Batman said as he just stood there.

"I wish it was on kinder meeting, Batman," Mr. Miracle said as the Boom Tube closed. Mr. Miracle and Barda greeted everyone in the room. "So who's the new member?"

"She is not a member," Batman said plainly. "She's from another reality."

Hearing this, Barda raised her weapon and charged Rhea. With a warrior yell, Barda, a New God, charged down Rhea. With a thunderous collision, Barda's New God club landed a powerful hit on Rhea's gauntlets as Rhea raised them to block the blow.

On the bridge, J'onn was busy relaying information to Superman, The Flash, and Plastic Man as they watched over Max. Superman had tried to get close to Max, but when he reached up with his right hand to grab Max's right shoulder, something had seared Superman's skin. 2nd degree burns were immediately forming over his palm. There was something definitely wrong with Max. J'onn had told them to keep back and monitor Max's reactions. People that noticed Max as he walked down the middle of the highway were quickly leaving their vehicles as they watched as people were dropping unconscious as Max passed. It was the same as what Max had done in Gotham. Now he was on the outskirts of Los Angeles. More and more people were dropping. The Flash and Superman cleared the unconscious from their cars and the highway. Max was still suffering from the maniacal laughter, but it had calmed to a giggle, for now.

"Superman, from what I am reading, Max is-"

Before J'onn could communicate the important information, the bridge shook with multiple explosions. Then, from a wall below J'onn's post, a wall exploded out into the bridge main area. Two figures were fighting. He recognized Barda as she ran out of the newly created doorway. The figure she was chasing down was covered in metallic body armor. All he could really see what the curly crimson hair. It was Rhea. Realizing this, J'onn excused himself from the comm. and floated down to the main area. Barda was pummeling Rhea with her club. Each impact sent out tremors throughout the station, equivalent to a 6.0 earthquake. J'onn had to break this up and soon. The station could not handle much more. He could already pick up thoughts of emergency as people and League members rushed to damaged areas.

"STOP THIS AT ONCE," J'onn yelled with both his voice and his mind.

Barda stopped in mid swing. Rhea was on one knee prepared for the coming blow. Her body suit had protected her as much as it could. She knew she would have a few bruised ribs, maybe even a cracked one, and her forearms were bruised from the attacks. Her left arm dangled at her side, her shoulder dislocated from a direct hit from Barda's club.

"She needs to be killed," Barda growled at J'onn. "She is not supposed to exist here."

"We know that Barda," J'onn said as he sent calming thoughts to her in order to calm her warrior blood lust. "She is helping us with getting her back home."

"Barda," Mr. Miracle called out from the large hole caused by the fighting. "We did not come here to fight! We came here to help."

"But-" Barda began but was interrupted by an alarm.

"J'onn, Max has disappeared again," Flash said as he appeared on a large monitor across from the console J'onn was using to coordinate the readings and the team on the ground.

"What is this," Barda asked as she slowly began to cool.

"Wonder Woman, can you please update Barda and Mr. Miracle on the situation we are trying to calm." Wonder Woman nodded and began updating the two Gods. J'onn lifted up and landed back at the console station. He studied the readouts. "Flash, you and Superman need to head into Los Angeles immediately. Max has appeared just outside a large protest in the Upper East Side. The situation had just turned violent as three rival gangs began firing. So far I do not see any casualties, but I am picking up on almost a dozen injured."

"On it, Big Guy," Flashed said as his image cut off.

"This is not good," J'onn said as he turned to the two New Gods.

"What is the matter, J'onn," Mr. Miracle asked.

"From my readings, Max has somehow gained the ability to drain someone of their fear."

"So he's turning people into fearless dangers," Mr. Miracle asked, worried at what that might do.

"No," J'onn said shaking his head. "The strain on the mind causes the person to black out. That is why there were so many people in Gotham that were affected. After Max was dosed with the mixture of fear toxin and laughing gas in its unstable form, his body began to change in order to adapt. He is struggling to counteract the combined poisons in his system. But while he is fighting inside, his body his absorbing people's fears. Every person that was exposed to the gases in Gotham was knocked out. He has been counteracting the poisons in others in order to figure out how to rid his body of the toxins."

"Then I'll just have to knock some sense into his small mind," Barda said. "He should not be here either." She reached down and tapped a button on her Mother Box, activating a Boom Tube.

"Wait," J'onn said, but it was too late. Barda had made up her mind.

Down on Earth, The Flash, Superman, and Plastic Man were making there way towards the protest, now a gang battleground.

Up on top of one of the surrounding buildings, Max stood there as he began to feel the fear emanating from the protest crowd. When the first fists began flying, Max was beginning to giggle as he felt the delicious taste of the fear in the crowd. As the fighting continued, shots began flying. The level of fear in the crowd soon became an all you can eat buffet. People ran and screamed in all directions as they tried to get away form the fighting rival gangs. Max rose up off the roof and began to float over the crowd. People that were running under him began to drop. Frightened people saw this and the level of fear began to increase even more. Max began to laugh harder. Soon his laughter was back to its maniacal level.

"Dear God," Superman exclaimed when he arrived just north of Max on the other side of the large protest. Flash stopped next to him. His jaw dropped as he saw the gangs firing at each other. When they began to see people dropping for no reason, someone had the idea to look up. There in the sky above the fallen protesters was a single man.

"What the hell is this jackass laughing at," a member of the gang that was furthest away from Max. "Kill that Mother!" When the members of his gang heard this, half of them began to fire up at Max. "No one laughs at us and lives!"

"Plas, create a shield and protect the bystanders who are trying to run away.

"No prob, Big Blue," Plastic Max said as he turned himself into a large flat penny and began to roll into the crowd. He reached his intended position and spread his form out to protect as many people as he could. Plastic Man formed multiple arms and picked up people that were on the other side of his barrier.

"Flash, I want you to try and get as many weapons away from those gang members as possible," Superman told Flash. "And try and stay away from under Max. He has not made his way over any of the gang members, but I have a bad feeling that he's going to start heading towards them. I'll try and talk to Max."

"Good luck," Flash said to Superman before heading into the battle field.

Max floated there high above the fleeing people and warring gangs.

"Why can't I stop this," Max thought as he laughed as bullets collided into the field he was somehow creating around his body. Each bullet burned to a sender when it hit the barrier, the same one that burned Superman's hand. "Why can't I control my body? Why?" Max was panicking as he had no control over his body.

"Max," Superman called out as he flew in close to Max. Superman stopped about twenty feet away from Max. He did not want to get burned by whatever surrounded Max. "You need to fight and stop this."

Max turned to Superman. Max spread his arms out to his sides. He looked like a man being crucified in mid-air.

"Good eats," Max said amongst his laughter. Max brought his arms together straight in front of him, pointing towards Superman. With a wave of searing heat from nowhere, Superman was thrown back in the air. Down below, Plastic Man was busy herding the crowd away from the flying bullets. Flash had just taken the last gun away from the last gangbanger as the wave was released. But this wave was different. Though Superman had felt the scorching fires, the people on the ground were hit with and invisible wave. Flash watched on as people began to fall when the wave touched them. Each person fell unconscious, feeding Max their fear. Fortunately for Flash, he was faster than the wave. He kept in front of it. But sudden fear shot into him when he watched as the wave collided with Plastic Man. With a howling scream, Plastic Man's form began to constrict as if watching a balloon lost its air. Plastic Man was unconscious. The remaining crowd tried to run, but were swallowed by the wave released by Max.

"I need to get behind Max," Flash thought as he kept ahead of the wave. With a quick thought, he changed course and began running northwest. He figured that Max only had a small range. Once he saw someone who was not affected, he would turn and circle around behind Max. "Superman, I am going try and circle around the edge of the wave and get behind Max. I'll make sure I stay a good distance so I don't get affected by him."

"You better hurry," Superman said as he stood up amongst building rubble. The wave had forced him back and he collided with an empty factory. The force had caused the old building to collapse on top on him. "I'll try and talk to him again. And try and see if you can get some of the unconscious people to a safe distance."

"Got it," Flash replied. He continued to run.

"Max, you have got to stop this," Superman pleaded with Max. "You were lucky that no one was in that warehouse you force me into."

Max floated there in the air. Both of his arms were now dangling at his sides. Max tilted his head as he still laughed. Superman was beginning to get annoyed by the continuous laughter.

"This is what Batman must feel like when going up against the Joker," Superman though to himself about the laughter.

"Help… me," Max whispered amongst his laughter. Superman's eyes widened. Did Max just ask for help? "Help… me."

Superman was not imagining it. Max was pleading for help. Whatever was going on, Max had lost control.

"J'onn, Max is speaking to me," Superman said over his ear comm.

Just then, a familiar explosion erupted to Superman's left. With a bright light, a Boom Tube began to open up in line with Max. And before Superman could react, Barda came charging out of the Boom Tube with her club raised high. With such close proximity, Superman could not get between Barda and Max.

With a warrior's roar, Barda slammed into Max with such force every window within a mile shattered. Superman yelled out for Barda to stop, but he was too late.


	11. Chapter 11

"J'onn, Max is speaking to me," J'onn heard Superman say over the comm.

It was too late for him to say anything. J'onn overheard Barda's battle cry and then the connection went out.

"This is not good," J'onn said as Mr. Miracle, Wonder Woman, Rhea walked up to him. The Atom and Ted Kord were walking back to the lab to try and see what they could do. The new information about other multiverses existing was astounding. "Barda has just attacked Max and all three comm. links to the team went dead from the impact. I thought Flash would not be affected, but he was on his way back towards Max when the shock wave knocked him into a grocery store. I can still read Flash, but he is not in any condition to try and do anything at the moment. His right shoulder has been dislocated and he has dislocated his left knee. And I can not get O'Brien at all. I do believe he was in the way of Max's energy wave."

"I apologize for the over reactions of Barda," Mr. Miracle apologized. She is a bit more moody than usual right now. She's…"

"Looks like even Gods have mood swings when they are expecting," Rhea said as she checked over her gauntlet computer. Everyone stared at Rhea. "What? Didn't you notice that her outfit was a bit too tight around her abdomen?"

"We're afraid we did not catch that little tidbit, Rhea," Wonder Woman said to her. She was not looking that pleased over how Barda was acting, but could not really blame her. "And what was Batman talking about? What is it that you need to tell us?"

Batman appeared inside the elevator and began walking towards the group as Rhea began her explanation.

"What you have now discovered, you now have put the planet at risk," Rhea began with a solemn look. She pressed a few buttons on her right gauntlet and a hologram appeared in front of her. "What you see is this multiverse." Then, the picture changed to a large group of blacked out human figures. "This might be better to explain rather than getting into the technical talk; it would just confuse the hell out of you. What you see here is a representation of your multiverse, though it has many more than are represented. Then," another group of figures appeared, this time they were red. "This is another multiverse. There are barriers set up between them so they can not interact with each other." The image changed to show a wall between the two groups. There were barriers between each of the figures in both groups, but they were more like a brick half wall. "Travel between the each universe in your multiverse is possible, though is blocked to some extent. But the barriers between each multiverse can not be broken through. Travel through it is not possible. The barrier is infinitely thick yet infinitely thin between them."

"Wait, what," The Atom asked, confused. "That doesn't make sense. How can it be both?"

"I don't know," Rhea replied, shrugging her shoulders. "That was what my reading said after I passed through the first time."

"You mean you have traveled through the barrier before," Batman said, more of a statement than a question. "How long have you been traveling through them?"

"Since half a continent on my world vanished," Rhea stated, remembering the broadcasts and reports. The hologram's image changed to show her Earth. Rhea's Earth looked much like their Earth except for Africa. "One day, a strange massive wave hit my Earth. And over the course of three minutes, majority of the Sahara and central Africa vanished. All that was left was a jagged mile deep hole that spanned hundreds of miles. Weather soon changed due to the missing landmass. The air over the hole fell, bringing with it cold air that created massive tornadoes all over Africa and for near a thousand miles around the hole. The United States had to evacuate everyone that lived east of the Mississippi due to the rather massive and frequent hurricanes. I did my best to create what we needed to counteract the violent weather changes. Parts of the Mediterranean were buried under feet of snow when I left. And the one picture I still can't get out of my head is seeing the Great Pyramids covered in snow. We lost so much life because of that wave. The earthquakes that followed wrecked hell all over the world. Scientists thought that the amount of land mass lost would have thrown the world off its tilt. It took me two years to engineer global stabilizers and place them in orbit." Everyone looked at her in amazement.

"That kind of engineering would be comparable to that of New Genesis," Mr. Miracle said in astonishment.

"It was all I could do at a moment's notice," Rhea said as her hologram changed to show a massive net of large platforms in orbit around Earth. "It only took me a month to refine my designs. It was the construction of the orbital platforms to build the satellite stabilizers and the construction of the stabilizers themselves that took most of the first year. But by that time over a hundred million people had been killed in massive storms and natural disasters across the globe."

"How could you build such large and technically advanced satellites and construction platforms in such short time," Ted Kord asked in awe.

"Such a feat would barely be possible for the engineers in New Genesis," Mr. Miracle said about the impossible feat.

"Her ability deals with advanced technology," Batman said as he stood listening to Rhea. "She can probably create anything that a situation calls for."

"How did…" Rhea asked, staring at Batman with wide eyes.

"From what I have seen, it was the simplest option to come to," Batman said plainly. "You are surprisingly easier to figure out than Max."

"Why do you say that," Rhea asked him, interested in his observations.

"He has been a mystery that I have been trying to figure out since he appeared," Batman said as he walked up to a console at J'onn's station. Batman brought up some readings of Max. Rhea looked on from Batman's left.

"Your systems seem to be limited," Rhea pointed out as she took in the information about Max. "Slow and not much memory. Have you any sentia-metal?"

Batman turned his head and looked at her, an eyebrow raised under his mask.

"Try my Mother Box," Mr. Miracle said as he began to unclip a small rectangular block from his belt.

"Still too slow and not enough memory," Rhea said as she studied the box. She handed the Mother Box back to Mr. Miracle and began to type buttons on her right gauntlet. Mr. Miracle actually took a step back in astonishment. Nothing was faster than the sentient computer of New Genesis. The box began to ping as if insulted by Rhea's comment, but then pinged again as if curious to what device would be faster. Rhea did not pay any attention to the pinging. When she finished typing her commands, a four inch cube formed out from the armor plate on her right shoulder. She picked it up as a hole opened in one side. Rhea looked at everyone and blushed a little, her green skin darkening some. "You wouldn't happen to know where the nearest singularity would be, by chance, would you."

"Sorry, but we are fresh out," Batman flatly replied. Wonder Woman and J'onn and the rest looked at Batman. He was actually being sarcastic.

"Oh," Rhea said as she shrugged. "No matter, I was saving one of these for an emergency." Rhea reached into her right pants pocket and pulled out a strange crystal with two black marble sized spheres inside. Everyone tried to focus on the two spheres, but it was as if their eyes were trying to look away at the same time.

"What are those," The Atom asked. "I'm picking up very strange sub-atomic readings from it."

"It's what powers my portable computer," Rhea said as she slid the crystal into the opening. The opening closed as the metal seemed to melt in order to close it. The cube glowed for a moment and then faded. She placed it on top of the console. Tentacles shot out of the cube and into any and all ports. "It's a battery composed of one regular matter and one anti-matter naked singularity set out of faze orbit of one another inside a polished white dwarf diamond, hardest natural material other than synthetics. It's also, strangely enough, very light and weighs about the same as a quartz crystal of the same size. But just be careful not to lower the settings below 7.024501 dimensional units, or how many dimensions it works in. I found working with it in anything less complicates the computations." Ted Kord and The Atom had their jaws hanging and their eyes seemed wider than their sockets. "Don't worry," she said as she studied the files Batman had on Max. Surprisingly, she was a fast reader. Even Batman had a hard time keeping pace with her. To everyone else, the screen looked as if it was just a slight blur. "I'll gladly give you the blueprints and schematics. They're inside the computer matrix I set up. And don't worry about making another one, I'm giving this one to you."

Ted Kord and The Atom thought they would orgasm in ecstasy over wanting to exam the new gift.

"Excuse me," J'onn said, bringing everyone out of their trance over Rhea's computer. "Barda, Max, and some fellow League members need our help."

"All ready figured that problem out, J'onn," Batman said as he stood up from looking at the monitor.

"How? When did you-" Ted asked, dumbfounded. No one talked about a plan.

"Rhea will just have to ask Max to stop," Batman said plainly as he walked by Wonder Woman and J'onn. He began typing in commands into another console to activate the teleporter. "but she will need to change first. He won't buy it on how you look now, Rhea."

Rhea and Wonder Woman seemed to be the only one that picked up on what Batman was talking about. Even J'onn took a moment to think about what Batman meant. But when he did, he knew exactly what they needed. A holographic imager to change Rhea's appearance would not work in this situation. They needed something that he knew Rhea could create in moments.

"Rhea, can you adjust your suit to cover your entire body and skin so as to change your appearance," J'onn asked politely.

"Yes," She replied. "It is something I use when I visit other worlds in trade or when they need help. It's more of a psychological thing than anything else. Other civilizations in my universe are not that keen to seeing a creature that does not look like anything like them helping them out."

"Good," Batman said. "You need to change your skin color to match ours and your hair needs to be changed to a slightly dirty blond color."

Rhea nodded and typed in a command into her gauntlet. Areas across her suit began to change. Soon, she was wearing a pair of light brown dress slacks that hugged her hips, a sleeveless baby blue blouse with the top three buttons undone to expose some of her cleavage, tanned skin replaced her green shaded skin, and her hair straightened some as it changed from its crimson red to a slightly dirty blond.

"I have got to get me one of those suits," The Atom said in awe at the change.

"You'll need sentia-metal then," Rhea said as she took in her new look. She turned her head towards The Atom and Ted, "Though I do hope you are conditioned for a neural interface. The feeling is very overwhelming if you are not prepared to feel like you are seeing everything from every point on your body. It was very disorienting even for me when I created it."

"So it's can act like an early warning system when someone is trying to sneak up on you," Ted said as he starred at the small box on the console.

"Kind of, yes," Rhea replied. "Now, why do you need me to be like this, Batman?"

"Mr. Miracle, we'll use your Mother Box and teleport down there immediately," Batman stated more than asked. With a nod, Mr. Miracle opened a Boom Tube. "Make sure we are some distance from the confrontation or we'll blow the surprise and the plan to stop Max."

Down in LA, Barda heaved off a large part of a brick wall that Max had thrown her through. She was mad enough to even go against the Darkseid. The battle energized her like nothing has in a long while. There had been many confrontations lately, but they left her wanting more after she had overtaken the enemy. But this mere human was giving her the fight she has been wanting. She felt energized. With a grin covering her face, she climbed out of the rubble and back towards the human.

"I don't know where you came from," Barda yelled out to get Max's attention, "but I am glad we have met in battle. My club and fists will get their workout today."

"Come get some, baby," Max said as he tried to be serious for just a moment.

Superman and The Flash could do nothing but crowd control. They needed to make sure no one was anywhere near either Max or Barda. Superman was carrying six people towards their safety area a mile away from the fighting when he listened in to Max and Barda. For a moment Max sounded sane. But shortly after, he heard his laughter and then the concussion from their impact.

"Hey tall and beautiful," Max said as they stopped for a moment in the air. Barda was fifteen feet from Max in a fighting stance. She held her club in both hand out in front of her. "Here' something I've been saving for ya," Max said as he stood there in the air. Barda watched as Max threw a punch. There was no way he could reach her, what was he thinking? She was fifteen feet away. But before she knew it, a fist appeared out of no where, connecting with the left side of her jaw.

Barda was loving the thrill of this fight. But something suddenly occurred to her. Why wasn't her hitting her in the abdomen? It was one of the most vital areas to hit during a confrontation. Was this man purposely avoiding hitting her there? Then a thought shot through her mind.

"Did this man know she was with child," Barda thought. "Is he avoiding hitting me there because of it?" That was only one of many questions that Barda has asked herself while fighting this man called Max.

Flash watched over the crowd of people who were unconscious. He had not seen anything like this since the Dream Master began invading people's minds as they slept. That was only a few years ago. Now this was happening and was caused by a friend. Granted he was dosed with two incompatible toxins, Flash was still worried if there would be any lasting affects due from Max.

_Ka-Boom!_

Flash turned around at the familiar sound of a Boom Tube opening. This would be one bad time if Darkseid or any of his goons decided to take this opportunity to attack. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the pointed cowl of Batman and the figure of Wonder Woman walking towards him.

"Thank God you guys are here," Flash said as he ran up to greet his fellow League members. Before he could say anything else, he saw a figure that stunned him.

"Wow, this is a first," Wonder Woman said at Flash's silence. She turned to Rhea, "You actually stunned Flash into silence. This is a moment to remember," Wonder Woman said, teasing the Speedster.

"Funny, Wonder Woman," Flash replied. "Is that who I think it is?"

"It's just me Flash," Rhea said to him.

"Wow, Rhea, you look just like-"

"Don't say the name, Flash," Batman warned him. "She is not too kind when someone says the name you are thinking. You can say it, but she will have a blade at your throat in a 'flash'."

"Did Batman just make a joke at my expense," Flash asked. "Great, now there's going to be a snowman building contest in Hell." Flash shook his head as Wonder Woman, Rhea, and Mr. Miracle walked by him with smiles. Batman walked by him with his signature plain look.

"Flash, we will need you to do something for us," Batman said as he stopped in front of him. "We have a plan and we need you to go over and tell Max to get over here immediately."

"You want me to interrupt the fight between Barda and Max," Flash said. He knows that he regularly runs into a situation blindly, but this could kill him.

"All you need to do is get his attention and tell him to get over here," Batman said. "We are going to sedate Rhea and lay her down with the rest of the people here. When he sees her among the crowd, he should be able to take control of himself."

Flash thought this over. His eyes grew wide and gave Batman a smile at the realization of the plan.

"Be back quicker than you can spell Batmobile," Flash said as he took off towards the gladiatorial fighting.

"Batman," Superman called out as Flash ran under him. Superman landed with more people. He had overheard everything. "Is there anyway you can try and make an antidote for Max using his blood? Don't we have some left?"

"It would be pointless," Batman said as he knelt down to check the pulse of the first person Superman laid down.

"Why would that be pointless," Superman asked him. "Just use a small portion of each toxin antidote and mix it with Max's blood."

"Like I said Superman, it would be pointless," Batman said as he checked yet another person's vitals.

"Why, don't you want to help him," Superman said, angry that his friend was not going to do what he said.

Batman stood up quickly and stared Superman down. Batman was the only person that could make Superman feel powerless with a simple look.

"Like I said it would be pointless," Batman said calmly. "His blood is useless now."

"What," Superman asked, confused. "What's wrong?"

"That was one of the first ideas I had. I called up to J'onn and asked him to prepare a sample of Max's blood," Batman explained as he knelt down to another person. "J'onn called me back with bad news. The blood was not tampered with as it was still locked up in the medlab. J'onn told me that the blood looked strange. He checked it under a microscope and noticed that the crystalline was inert, causing the cells to explode. The cells in Max's blood could not survive without the crystalline."

Superman looked at Batman with concerned eyes mixed with shock as he realized what that meant. "So if Max ever had the crystalline removed…"

"He would die almost instantly," Batman finished for Superman. "But he would not die before he went through pain equal to your reaction to kryptonite."

Max stood there in mid air enjoying this new playmate. Barda was breathing heavily, a grin covering her face at the fun she was having as well. Each attack was skillfully blocked or taken in stride. Surrounding buildings were already either showing some damage from the fight or were piles of rubble. Luckily, the Justice League had managed to evacuate all the civilians from the area. With a battle cry, Barda charged Max in a mighty jump from the top of a yet undamaged and only standing wall to a warehouse. Her strength in the jump caused the last wall to finally give way and collapsed onto its fallen brethren. Barda had gone to using hand to hand combat with Max, seeing as it had been knocked along with her and Max into a large pile of rubble that once was a vehicle maintenance and tool storage garage.

Max still had the smile covering his face, but now seemed as if it were there only due to what Joker's laughing gas left in an after affect. Max was concentrating on the fight

Each fighter tossed one another onto and into piles of rubble surrounding them. Clouds of pulverized cement and mortar filled the air in a light fog.

Flash arrived at the outskirts of the destroyed buildings. He had seen a few buildings fall as he was carrying people to safety, but now it was a warzone. Craters pocked the ground where the rubble did not cover. Shockwaves flew through the air as each fighter made contact.

"Why did they have to destroy everything," Flash said as he scratched his head. "How the hell am I going to get through all of this?"

"What's taking so long, Flash," Batman said over the ear comm.

Flash jumped at his voice. "Well, I am trying to figure out how to get through all this rubble without breaking my neck," Flash argued.

"Well, hurry up," Batman said impatiently. "The sedative won't last too long."

"Oh shove it, Bats," Flash thought to himself. He studied the rubble ahead of him and began mapping out a way into the battle field.

"You are definitely a good opponent, Max," Barda said with a bit of a forced grin. "I have not had this much fun since the fire pits of Apokolips." Both Max and Barda charged one another once again. They met with each hand intertwining with the others. "But let us see how long you can keep your strength up little man."

Max stood in front of Barda, grappling with her in a test of strength. Neither one seemed to give any leeway. The ground under their feet sank as each one forced their own power on the other.

"Finally," Flash said as he made it over the crumbling obstacle course. He was fifty feet away from Max and Barda. "Holy crap, he's keeping up with Barda. I don't know if it's because of the toxins or what, but that just seems dumb no matter what." Flash remembered all three times Barda had slapped him on the back for a congratulations on winning the battle. Each time the light slap almost dislocated his shoulder. His left shoulder began hurting just by thinking about it. It was now or never. "Max, come quick," Flash yelled at him.

Max stood there. He heard Flash speaking to him off to his left, but he was not about to lose his concentrating.

"Max," Flash called out again. He had to think quickly. Then it hit him. "Max, another rift opened up, man!" Flash noticed Max's eyebrow raise. He was listening. "She's hurt man, unconscious. Rebecca's hurt!"

Immediately Max's eyes went wide. All strength left him at those two words. 'Rebecca's hurt' echoed through his mind. Had he caused it? Was he the reason she was hurt?

"Oh God no," Max whispered. Max turned his head towards Flash, the look of horror covering his face.

Barda saw this. It was the opening she was wanting. Quickly releasing her hold, she thrust her right fist into Max's abdomen. The impact caused Flash to take a step back. Releasing her other hand, Barda delivered a left uppercut to Max's chin. Max was in shock at what Flash had yelled to him and had no time to block or dodge the blow.

Barda sent Max flying into the air to her right.

"You idiot," Flash yelled out at Barda. "That wasn't needed!"

"You want to have a go little man," Barda asked, thirsty for more.

Flash was glad he was the fastest man alive. He realized too late what he yelled out. Quickly turning, he jumped around through the rubble and back towards the Justice League and where Max would soon be landing, hopefully unconscious.

"Flash better hurry," Batman said impatiently. The punches had stopped for a good five minutes.

"It should not take him that much longer," Wonder Woman said. "The way Max loves his wife he would be here almost as soon as Flash would arrive from delivering the message."

No sooner had she finished what she was saying, two heavy impacts rang through the air. Shortly afterwards, Flash stopped next to Batman, the look of fear covering his face.

"So where is he," Batman asked Flash. Batman saw the look of fear over his face. "And what did you do this time?"

"He'll be here soon," Flash said as he pointed up with his right thumb. "He's flying 'Air Barda'."

"What," Batman asked. He was not in the mood for any games. Batman glanced up. Max's limp body was falling towards them. Everyone watched as Max collided with a small brick tool shed. The impact sent shattered bricks and broken tools everywhere. Luckily the unconscious people were a good distance away. Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and J'onn ran over to the now pile of rubble.

Each league member stopped short of the shed as a large section of a wall began to rise. Underneath, lifting with what strength he had was a beaten Max. The smile was slowly fading, but was still present on his face. But now, Max had the look of fear and horror covering his bloody and grit covered face.

"Rebecca," Max tried to say. His jaw was dislocated. No one could really understand it as Max's voice came out as garble.

"Rebecca is safe, Max," Superman said with a comforting smile. "She was found and was just passed out."

Max limped out of the rubble and slowly made his way towards the unconscious people. Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash all wanted to help Max over to Rebecca, but they did not know what condition he was in. J'onn had tried to get something from Max, but all he got was flashes of memories about Rebecca. One in particular seemed interesting to him. J'onn picked up a stray thought about a strange reptilian being that had an interest in Max. The feelings from that memory were very destructive for some reason.

Superman walked along side Max until they got to the edge of the unconscious victims. Max stared in horror as he spotted Rebecca about a dozen or so people in. She was lying there as if asleep. There was a rolled up coat under her head. Comfort seemed to fill Max as he could not pick up anything that would hurt her. Max fell hard to his knees, dislocating his right knee cap. The pain was nothing but a background noise to Max as he stared at Rebecca's sleeping form.

Max began to shake his head, "Why. Why did we come here Rebecca," Max cried as tears fell to the ground. "Why couldn't we just be left alone." Max knelt there crying, his hands facing up and resting on the pavement to his sides. "Why did you have to be here? Why couldn't those damn rifts leave you alone? Why?" Max knelt there crying as Wonder Woman knelt down on his right. She placed a caring hand on his right shoulder. Max looked up and turned to look at Wonder Woman. "Why?"

Wonder Woman did not know what to say to Max. Before she could, she stared at Max as his eyes became dilated and began to roll up. All strength left Max. In a full body sigh, Max fell off to his left, unconscious, the smile finally fading, replaced by a frown.

__________________________________

Sorry for the delay. I have been busy getting things done at work and talking over plans fore my brother's wedding next month. Please, if you read my story, review it. I would love to hear suggestions and comments of any kind about the story.

I will be adding in more information dealing with Rhea, Max and the one known now only as The Broker. Trust me, things will be getting a bit edgier from here on in. And maybe some fun times as well.


	12. Zatanna and the Magic What!

Disclaimer: I do not own any DC Comic characters, they are owned by their rightful owners. Max Colbern and the Mendara are owned by me. Sorry for the late upload, been busy with things in life and plus I kept forgetting. Sorry readers. On with the show!!!

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Zatanna and the Magic What?!

"What the hell do you think you are doing, call me here," Amanda Waller yelled at a certain bald CEO. She entered Lex Luthor's office by forcefully opening one of the doors to his office with a loud slam. She stomped her way into his office as he sat at his desk with a simple grin, his fingers in a temple in front of his face.

"Nice to see you as well Amanda," Lex greeted the Cadmus head. "You seem to be in good moods today."

"I was until I was told I had to be here by a set of your goons, Lex," Amanda yelled at him. A vein on her temple was throbbing with her raised heartbeat. "If you ever do anything like that again I'll make sure that any and all contracts you have with the government are voided, do you hear me?"

Lex reached over to a glass bottle and poured himself a glass of a 50 year old malt whiskey as Amanda Waller ranted. "Please have a seat, I have some very interesting to show you."

"This had better be something that's worth all your contracts, Luthor," Amanda said as she sat down in one of two plush chairs.

"Oh, I'll have to have you look over the info I have collected before I make that judgment," Lex said calmly to her. He knew the information was going to be to her liking. Lex turned a touch monitor towards her that held the information. Amanda Waller kept an angered expression on her face as she read over the information she was forced to come look over. "I had one of my resources copy the information on a certain fight some of the Justice League had in the Mohave Desert a few months ago. The robot had a vast collection about Earth. But for some reason, it did not have any information at all about any of the meta-human life or alien life that is on the planet. The files are so detailed they even include dozens of species yet to be discovered."

"Yet no information about the Justice League or any of the meta-humans or the like," Amanda said as she glanced over the information.

"But that is not the only thing," Lex said as he took a sip of his fine whiskey. "The power cores were immense in and of themselves. Remember that day when there was a second sun for a few seconds?" Amanda nodded. "That was from the explosion of the first power core from the monstrosity. Then shortly after the secondary power core erupted, as you can see." Amanda was watching a simulation of the second explosion. But then something impossible happened. The explosion stopped.

"Something wrong with your software, Lex," Amanda asked, seeing as how the explosion stopped.

"Oh no, my dear," Lex said with a smile. "Just watch." Amanda Waller watched on as the simulation continued. Her eyes grew wide. I had the lab guys create the simulation from the reports the present league members had given. It seems as if a strange rift was torn open and caused the fusion explosion to implode."

Amanda Waller sat back in her chair and stared hard at Lex. "So far I am not impressed."

"Good, that was just the boring stuff anyway," Lex said as he poured himself another glass. "I put together some surveillance footage from one of my buildings in Central City." Lex pressed a button on his desk and a monitor lowered behind Amanda. She turned to watch. On the screen, she noticed two very well known super villains robbing a bank of all things. Grodd and the twisted Bizarro were seen in the middle of the street, the vault on Bizarro's shoulders. From right of the camera, a tall man calmly walked towards the two.

"And you want me to watch as some poor idiot-" but before she could finish, she watched as Grodd was defeated by the unknown man. She shrugged that off. Amanda even gave a smirk as she watched The Flash get assaulted by a couple dozen people. Then came Bizarro. Once he dropped the vault, she knew that the man was dead. But he just stood there. Then, the footage changed to a different camera. This one must have been a great distance away as the footage was grainier.

"The footage had to be shifted over to another building as a result of what happens next," Lex said. Both watched on as Bizarro raised his hand and made contact with the man. The shockwave shattered any and all glass within two hundred yards, including lenses. "As you can see, this man here is why I called you here," Lex finally said to Amanda Waller. "He simply stood there and let Bizarro hit him, causing Bizarro to break a few bones in his wrist and hand." Bizarro cradled his hand and flew off out of the city. "Then there is the footage of the stranger here in Metropolis," Lex said as the view switched to that of the alien beating up Superman and literally slamming Wonder Woman's head into the pavement. "This man became very interesting to me after this little incident here a little while ago. And that large creature, that is the same man. And today, I even heard about him out in LA with the gang riots that broke out a week ago. Several hundred civilians and gang members all knocked unconscious simply by that man's will."

Amanda Waller had heard of the reports about LA. That was the meeting Lex had interrupted while she was at Cadmus. "I heard about the events in LA. How do you know it was him?"

"A few contacts out there managed to stay out of range of the man's reach and were able to get some interesting footage and a special bonus that I paid him handsomely for." Lex reached over to the bottom left drawer on his desk and pulled out a vial with red fluid inside. "They managed to get a decent blood sample. This one is for you my dear."

Before Amanda reached out for the vial, she looked at the man with a blank stare.

"The catch," she asked in a level tone.

"Let's just say," Lex said as he played with the vial in his left hand, twirling it between his fingers. "I'll own any and all research pertaining to the samples and any patents that come from them."

"So what benefit is it to us at Cadmus," she asked in return. "Sounds like you just want to use our labs indirectly. We do all the R&R and you get the rights to everything."

Lex looked at Amanda straight in the eye. She was actually taken back by a sparkle of wonder in Lex's eyes. Her gut was telling her to stay away from anything he had. But seeing that lone sparkle in the man's eyes made her want to know what would cause a man, who held his emotions at bay, to have a the same look of a child on Christmas morning in his eyes.

"Let's see what wonder that blood is first, Mr. Luthor," Amanda Waller said as she stood up from her chair. "I'll want to study the sample first before I agree to anything."

"By all means, use one of the labs in the sub-basement to study it," Lex offered her. This definitely caught her off guard. Lex saw her raise an eye brow at the lab offer. "Amanda, I merely want you to see what this man has to offer. My researchers have been studying another sample and I have been getting reports that make me question their sanity. I would just like to have some one else to study a sample and see what results they get."

"Fine," Amanda Waller said. She took the sample out of Lex's hand and quickly walked out of his office, cursing Lex with every other step.

An hour later, Lex sat waiting at his desk as he went over the results his scientists had given him.

"Mr. Luthor," Mercy called over the intercom.

"Yes Mercy," he answered her as he set down a group of papers from one of the reports.

"Amanda Waller on line two," Mercy said flatly.

"Thank you Mercy," Lex replied. He could tell Mercy did not like Amanda one bit. "Well Amanda, what do you think?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS HE," she yelled in astonishment, but there was also a hint of excitement and deep interest in her voice. "What I see is impossible beyond understanding. You have a deal."

"Glad you could see things my way, Amanda," Lex said. He pressed a button and ended the call. Lex went back to reading the last report from his contact about the man's blood and data from the League's Watchtower. A smirk covered his face as he read on about the strange man known as Max Colbern. Lex had done a search and there was no Max Colbern anywhere in the world that matched the description of this man. So that part about him being from a different Earth was verified. When he reached the second to last page, Lex's smirk withered away.

"The samples of blood taken from subject Max Colbern had been destroyed within a short time after they were taken," the report began. Lex did not like this. "The strange substance inside the blood had some how become inert, causing the cells to die and burst. Judging by the time between the blood being taken and the substance becoming inert had been five days. Why that happened is unknown. There will need to perform more tests."

"Mercy, get me the head researcher on Project Stranger," Lex called into his intercom. Without answering, the phone began to ring.

"Yes Mr. Luthor," a woman's voice answered.

"What is the status of the subject's blood," he demanded. "Are the samples still viable?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Luthor," the woman replied assuredly. "The blood is still viable. The strange substance in the samples has not become inert."

With that news, he hung the line up. He leaned back in his chair to think. Why was the blood still good? Wasn't there a safety measure in the blood itself like the data from the League said? Could it be that the man became unconscious shortly before the samples were quickly gathered? Was it because of the situation he was in that he did not send signal for the blood to destroy itself?

Whatever the reason, Lex Luthor was beyond glad that he now had vials of blood to use. The lone vial he gave to Waller would be a calculated investment. She did have some resources that he needed to work with the blood; for what he had in mind would create a fortune for him.

"Mr. Luthor I presume," a sudden voice called out in Lex's office. There had been no one else but him since Waller had left. He spun around from the view of Metropolis to see a man lounging in one of the chairs on the opposite side of his vast 300 year old antique desk. The man was normal looking, no distinguishing characteristics that would make him noticeable, accept a pair of glasses that sat low on the man's nose.

"How did you get in here," Lex demanded roughly as he jumped up and slammed his hands on his desk.

"Don't be so quick tempered there m'boy," the man assured Lex with a calculating smile.

Lex could tell that this man was intelligent. But something did not sit right with him. The man seemed too normal, too average.

"I come here in regards of the man known as Max Colbern," the man said as he moved his glasses back up his nose with his right index finger. "You have information and samples that I was not able to retrieve from a certain engagement out in your Los Angles. I am simply here on behalf of my employer. He has become very interested in this man.

"And would your employer be responsible for that monstrosity that the Justice League fought in the desert," Lex asked the stranger.

The man lifted an eyebrow at the question. "Indeed he did," he replied with a small smile. "Your intelligence is quite astonishing Lex Luthur. How was it that you came to that conclusion?"

"Simple," Lex said as he calmed a little. "You appear out of no where asking about a man who is not from this Earth. You too are human, but you said my Los Angles. And lastly, I know for a fact that the information about Max Colbern is only known to the League and myself. For a stranger to suddenly start asking about him just after I start my investigations is all too coincidental."

The man sat back and slowly clapped his hands at Lex's answer.

"And who is this employer that you speak of," Lex asked him as he took a sit of whiskey.

"All in due time, Lex," the man answered.

"Batman and Steel, anything new about that robot database," Superman asked over the comm.

"Yes," Steel said from his work station next to the colossal head. Batman was standing next to the head checking over connections between the robot's data storage and their own computers. "Since the database was upgraded due to Rhea's computer, I have found many similarities between the technologies."

"What did you say," Rhea's voice asked over the comm.

"I said that there are many similarities between the techs," Steel said. "Is this Rhea?"

"Yes it was," Superman replied. "I think you'll be getting a visit from her in a few minutes. She did not look very pleased at your answer. Is there anything else, Steel?"

"Yes," Batman said in Steel's place. "I have been doing some searching through the knowledge this thing has about Earth. It has very detailed files about almost every single country in the world. But the strange thing is it is missing any and all information about other countries. With that and the omission of any and all data about meta-humans, aliens, or anything magic, I will be running a data comparison program between the robot's data core and our data core."

"Why do you think the robot does not have any information about meta-humans, aliens, or magic," Superman asked.

"My first conclusion is that this is the detailed cataloging of another Earth entirely," Batman said in his calm steady tone. "I will inform you when the program finishes."

"Did I just hear Batman take a guess at something," Wally asked Superman as he entered the med bay.

Superman turned around and nodded to Wally. Superman was standing over Max, taking in the vitals of his new friend. Superman wondered what Max could really do if he wanted to. He could tell that Max has a strong sense of what is right and wrong. But when it has come to the instances when Max is knocked out and his body takes on the defensive, those senses are stretched to their limits. Luckily no one was killed in LA a week ago. There had been injuries due to the shootings and the first reaction to Max's arrival, but there were no fatalities.

"Some things do change," Wally said with a smirk. "How's he doing?"

"Max seems to be in the same state since he fell unconscious. Heart beat is holding steady, but at the same time it is weak. Brain scans show that he is in a coma. And the weird puss has finally stopped oozing from his feet and hands."

"That was weird," Wally said as he remembered back to when he carried Max to the med lab. "What was that stuff?"

"Batman said that the chemical analysis was that of Joker's laughing gas and Scarecrow's fear toxin mixed with a very high level of white blood cells and fat cells," Superman said. "From his description, the fat cells incased the chemicals while the white blood cells attached to them and carried them through the sweat glands in his hands and feet, furthest away from the main organs in the body."

"So he should be waking up soon then, huh," Wally asked as he watched Superman enter in data to the console next to Max's bed.

"I don't know Wally. All that Max did in LA could have worn on his system incredibly for all we know. He could wake up any minute now or stay in a coma for months. It's all up to Max."

"Man this sucks," Wally said as he leaned over Max. "He managed to save everyone there in LA from what could have been a bloodbath. But again he also attacked every person there. Plas is still weary of being anywhere near Max. He told me having the fear taken out of him like that was like having a Girl Scout using a chisel to break away part of his soul."  
"That sounds a bit strange," Superman said has he finished entering in the data. "Though it is Plastic Man we're talking about."

"Yea," Wally agreed.

"How's the Emotion Unabomber doing," Zatanna asked from the doorway.

"Now that is not a nice thing to say," Wally said in reply to her comment. "He's a friend."

"Sorry," Zatanna said as she walked up to Wally and Superman. "How's Max doing?"

"He's still in a coma," Superman said.

"I see," she said as she rubbed her chin with her right index finger and thumb. "Has Fate talked to you or any of the other high level magic using League Members spoken with you lately about odd feeling?" Both men turned to her in confusion. Superman, may I try a spell on Max to confirm something? It is totally non-invasive."

"I don't know, but the more information we have about Max could help him revive quicker."

"So is it okay?"

"I don't see why not," Superman said with a shrug. Zatanna smiled and thanked Superman.

"Wally, can you stand next to Superman please," Zatanna asked politely. Wally nodded and flash stepped next to Superman. Zatanna raised her hands over Max's comatose body. "Xam uoy slia tahw em llet!"

A purplish glow formed and rippled around Zatanna's hands. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she joined minds with Max.

With a sudden flash of movement, Max's left hand raised up and grabbed onto Zatanna's right arm in a vise like grip. The sudden physical connection jerked Zatanna's head back. Her mouth opened in a silent horror filled scream, the same light filling her mouth.

"Oh crap," Wally exclaimed. He ran around next to Zatanna. But before he could touch Max's wrist, the same purplish glow flashed around Max and Zatanna. The jolt forced Wally's arm back, along with the rest of his body, to the wall next to the entrance to the med lab. "Whoa," Wally said as he looked up from where he landed.

"You ok Wally," Superman asked.

"Yea," Wally replied as he began to stand. "Nothing a week long back massage wont cure."

"Superman to J'onn," Superman called out in hast as he pressed a button on the wall comm. unit.

"What's the matter Superman," J'onn asked in confusion.

"Get Fate on the line and tell him to get we need his help with Zatanna."

"What's wrong with her," J'onn asked over the comm.

"She performed a spell to see if she could find anything that could help Max," Superman said as he watched the glow ripple around both her and Max.

Zatanna let out a scream when she felt Max's hand grab her arm. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the med lab. She was standing on a sandy beach next to a large lake. Out in the lake there was a small island with a couple of small trees and grass. She looked all around her. Trees reached up far above her. She turned around and saw a large grassy plain a few square acres across. The air was filled with the smell of fresh pine and grass after a morning dew. A slight breeze sent a pleasant chill up her spine, causing goose bumps to form all over her body. And that was strange. She could have sworn she was just in the med lab with Max. But now she was in a beautiful peaceful place back on Earth. Everything to her felt as real as anything possible. There was no sense of magic anywhere around her. She could not feel any malice anywhere around her. She looked up and saw a crystal blue sky with large clouds scattered all across the sky. It felt peaceful to her being here.

Zatanna was soon jerked around at the sound of splashing water. Turning around, she saw a shirtless man walking out from the lake. Hair hid his face from her.

"What do you want," the man demanded of her as he smoothed back his hair from his face.

"Max," Zatanna asked.

Max looked at her for a moment as if he did not recognize her at all.

"Oh, hi Zatanna," Max greeted her as his eyes grew wide with recognition. He gave her a gentle smile. The smile and feeling she was getting from him caused her to blush noticeably. Max saw this and gave a small laugh.

Zatanna covered her mouth and coughed, trying to regain her composure.

"Is everything all right," Max asked her as he walked up onto the sandy beach.

"No," Zatanna said as she calmed herself. "You have been in a coma for over a week. I tried to perform a spell on you to see if I could find anything that could help you."

"Oh," Max said with a slight nod of his head. "So that's why I was suddenly thrust into the air and into the lake." She looked at Max in confusion. "I was lying down on the beach looking at the clouds pass by overhead," Max pointed with his thumb up at the sky. "I use this place as a healing center after I put myself through a lot of strenuous exercises with my Mendara. Normally nothing happens without my say so. I was taken back when I was launched into the lake. I was wondering why that happened."

"But why am I here," Zatanna asked.

"Wasn't it because of your spell," he asked her.

"No, the spell was supposed to perform a physical, metal and magical scan of your body," she informed him. "Not thrust me into your mind."

Max stood there for a moment.

"You said you were scanning on my physical, mental and magical health," he asked in assurance. She nodded. Max started to nod in realization. "You might want to sit down for this."

Zatanna sat down on the beach. Max sat down next to her as he stared out over the lake.

"What is wrong Superman," Dr. Fate asked as he entered the med lab where Zatanna stood over Max.

"Zatanna performed a simple spell to check on Max," Superman said after greeting his friend.

Dr. Fate looked over the situation. He began to feel a strange sensation from Max. "It is what I was fearing," Fate said as he came to a conclusion.

"What's wrong, Doc," Wally asked from the other side of Max.

"I finally know what the cause of the strange ripples that are causing many in the magical community to feel a strange uneasiness."

"Zatanna mentioned something like that before she performed the spell," Superman informed Fate.

"This is very interesting," Fate said. "I'll need to set up some probing spells to confirm my conclusion."

"My world is void of true magic," Max said to Zatanna.

Zatanna's eyes grew wide at this impossibility. "That can't be. All life has some level of magic flowing through it. Nothing can survive without it."

"As far as I know, I do not have any magic in me whatsoever," Max said to her as he shrugged her shoulders. "There was a form of magic in the world, but it has all faded away and has not existed in my world for a very long time. We only have legends and myths now that speak of magic. Some people in my world say that they are magicians, but it is all truly just misdirection and slight of hand tricks."

"That is truly unbelievable to hear," Zatanna said as she took in this information. "So that may be the reason why there was such a strong reaction to the spell."

"Could be," Max said

They sat on the beach for a few minutes without saying a word.

Fate stood on the opposite side of Max's bed as he sent thin golden strands of magic to probe the spell. He did not perform a direct spell over Max and Zatanna but a spell to probe why the spell had such a strong reaction. Fate's hands hovered over Max as his wiggling fingers moved the golden strands of his incantation.

A half hour passed when the golden strands disappeared. Zatanna had not moved at all since her head was thrust back in a silent scream. Fate lowered his hands to his sides and stood there contemplating over what he found out. Fate sat down on the bed behind him and lifted his golden helmet off his head. Under the helmet was a tanned man with dark hair pulled back in a pony tail and a thin goatee. His eyes were wide at his conclusion.

"Is everything alright Fate," Wonder Woman asked. She had walked in with Dr. Fate when he arrived. She was given an update by Wally as why he was here.

"You all have heard of the Yin and Yang," Fate asked out to no one in particular. Everyone nodded. "There is much that symbol represents. Many say it stands for light and dark, good and evil, opposites to one another."

"What are you saying Fate," Wonder Woman asked. "What does that have to deal with Max and what's going on?"

"Everything in this world has magic flowing through them. Few have access to it and even fewer can control and use the magic."

"What, are you saying that Max is the Yang to magic's Yin," Wally asked Fate.

Fate took a second to realize Wally had asked such an interesting question.

"No, he is not the opposite of magic," Fate said. He took a moment to find the words to describe what he wanted to say. "The best way I can describe it is he is a third to the opposition of Yin and Yang."Everyone looked at the legendary sorcerer in utter confusion. "Has everyone heard of the Celtic trinity knot? That is the best way to describe it, though it is completely different."

"This place is beautiful," Zatanna complimented Max as she looked around the mental plane they were in. "Where is it?"

"This is a place I found less than a year ago back on my world in the northwestern part of the United States," Max said as he stood up. He brushed off as much sand as he could from his thoroughly soaked jeans. Max tried to put his hands in his pockets, but changed his mind as his pockets were holding on tight to his legs and put them on his hips. "It's a lake on the edge of a national forest. They were going to begin cutting the trees down until I purchased a good part of land right here. And there are laws that say that logging cannot be within 5 miles of residents. They can log up to the edge of the national forests, but not within 5 miles. When I purchased this land, I suddenly had companies trying to buy it from me so they could get to the land. I never gave in. Strangely enough, I even had a few threats to my life, but I used a few tricks I learned with my Mendara and they stopped all together. It did take a while, but the companies stopped asking. There were still quite a few old growth trees still standing around here and I was not about to let them cut them down. I had even found a tree that was over three hundred years old and still healthy."

"How much land did you buy," Zatanna asked as she too stood up. She went to brush the sand off of herself, but there was no sand on her. She thought that was strange.

"About fifty square acres," Max said as he stretched his arms above his head. "I figured that the best place to buy was right here. From the edge of the property down to the right there are some of the largest old growth trees outside of being redwoods. There is even a tree over there that seems great to build a clubhouse on like in the Swiss Family Robinson story."

Zatanna was quiet for a moment. She could have sworn she felt something lightly poking at her.

"Max, why did my magic have such a reaction to you?"

"I don't know. I never really was around real magic," Max said. Then Max had an idea. "Zatanna, why don't you try doing a spell right now?"

"Okay, but I don't know what will happen," she said, not sure of the results she would have. She had to think of something simple. "Eltsac dnas a otni pu mrof dnas," she said as she held out a hand. To her relief, nothing strange happened. The sand began to swirl and formed a decent sized castle.

The entire time the sand moved, Max stood stock still. When he heard her say the words, ribbons of energy formed around a small area that encased the soon to be finished sand castle. Each ribbon had the words on them, each ribbon moving around the forming castle. Max's eyes were wide open. He could not comprehend what he was seeing.

"There we go, one sand castle," Zatanna said with a smile. It soon shrank when she looked over at Max. His eyes were extremely wide and filled with fear, astonishment, and wonder. "Something wrong?"

"Do your spells always appear like that," Max asked her as he kept his eyes on the castle.

"What do you mean 'appear'," she asked him in confusion.

"I watched as ribbons of the spell appeared around the area the castle was forming," Max said as he pointed to the castle.

"You saw the spell," she asked in astonishment.

"Yea," Max said with quick nod of his head. He still could not believe what he saw.

"There is no way anyone can see a spell being cast. It's not possible."

"Well, I saw-"

Before Max could finished what he was saying, the scenery quickly faded away. Soon all he could see was darkness that seemed to gradually lighten up.

"-the spell around the castle," Max finished as he opened his eyes. He found himself lying on a bed in the med lab. Sitting up quickly, he saw Zatanna leaning up against the bed behind her. She held the side of her head with her hand. Max looked around at everyone in the room: Superman, Wally, Diana, J'onn, and a strange man dressed in blue with a golden cape and a helmet sitting next to him on the bed he was sitting on. Everyone at once began asking him how he felt, if he was ok and the like.

"And what in the world were you talking about when you woke up? A spell around a castle," Wally asked Max.

"Don't worry, something between Zatanna and me," Max said as he performed a set of stretches from his sitting position on the bed. The stretch reminded Superman of a cat when it awakens from a deep sleep.

"Max," the man in the golden cape began, "My name is Dr. Fate. I would like you to come with me for a little while. There are some things I need to ask you about your, what is it called, Mendara?"

"Yes, that's right," Max said with a nod. "Where are we going?"

"I have some things at my residence that need clarification from you," Fate said as he walked over the other side of the med lab. Max slowly stood and gently made his way over to Fate. His legs were tired and had not been used in almost two weeks. Max felt like pins and needles were puncturing every pore on his legs. The sudden strain was not shown in Max's face but could be seen in his walk.

"I'm coming too," Wally said at Max's side. He wanted to help Max find out what Fate was up to.

"And Diana, would you please join us as well," Fate said as he began to float a foot off the floor.

"Why me?"

"There is something that you must verify for me as well," Fate said mysteriously. Wonder Woman walked over to Wally and Max.

"So how are we-" Max's voice was cut off as Fate opened his Ankh gateway, swallowing the four in a golden glow.

"-going to get there," Max finished inside a lavish medieval banquet hall. Magical item were on display all over the large room; some floating over small pillars, others covered in a glass bell jar, and others displayed in antique wood glass-front cabinets. "Ok, now that was cool," Max said as he realized was just occurred. He had never traveled like he just had under someone else's power. It felt… interesting. Diana and Wally had been to Dr Fate's Tower and knew better not to touch anything no matter how ordinary it looked.

"That looks cool," Max said as he walked up to a bookshelf full of books. In the middle of the third shelf down was a figurine of a Chinese Emperor Dragon. Max could not take his eyes off of it. Fate, not noticing what Max was doing, was busy looking through a catalogue of magical items he had in his possession.

"I found the objects I want you to look at Max," Fate said as he turned around. His eyes grew large in horror when he noticed Max was reaching for the Emperor Dragon. "Don't touch that!" But it was too late. Fate tried to quickly cast a spell to halt Max's movements, but Max had already grabbed the dragon off from its resting place on the shelf. Fate was too late to save Max.

Wally and Diana dove for cover just in case something were to happen.

….


	13. Fate and The Dragon

Fate and The Dragon (???)

Nothing happened.

Max looked around at everyone as he held the dragon figurine in his right hand. He was confused at everyone's reaction to him admiring a dragon figurine.

"Rule one when you are in my house: Don't touch anything," Dr Fate said in a fretted state. Max lowered his head a little and held the dragon out to Dr Fate. "Don't hand that statue to me, it will kill me," Dr Fate said as he held up his hands to stop Max. But then Fate lowered his hands and began to think for a moment. "For that matter, why are you not dead?"

"What," Max said in dumbfounded astonishment. "Say again, Doc?"

"First, place the statue back where you got it," Fate said with a calm voice. When Max placed the dragon back, Dr Fate let out a full body sigh. "That dragon was created by a very power hungry alchemist in ancient China. It was to be a gift for the First Emperor. Once he touched it, he would be under the alchemist's control. But the Emperor was secretly known as a very powerful and wise Warrior Sorcerer. His gifts help the people of the land and China prospered. The alchemist wanted all of that power. Sensing the danger in the statue, the Emperor placed a counter spell on it. He pretended to be under the alchemists control and invited him to the palace in the Forbidden City. The alchemist sees the statue in the hands of the Emperor and is overjoyed. But once he began to ask of too many things, the Emperor began to play into his game. One night, at a lavish banquet in the alchemist's honor, the Emperor had placed a box at the place of all in attendance. An hour into the feast the Emperor stood and told everyone to open their gifts. No one knew of the dragon besides himself and the alchemist. And when the alchemist reached into his box and pulled out the Emperor Dragon, the alchemist heart exploded out from his chest."

Max stood there, allowing the tale to sink in. After a few minutes, Max spoke. "Is this the real reason why no one can own a painting or anything that has a five clawed Emperor Dragon?"

"Yes it is," Dr Fate said in a lighter tone. "You are a smart one. But you are also too curious at times." Max nodded and lowered his shoulders a little at the light scolding. "This has a death spell surrounding it. I can only handle it with other spells, but I can only do so for a short period of time least the spell seep through mine own and kills me."

"Ok, so no touching the cool stuff on the shelves, gotcha," Max said in assurance. "So why did you want me here?"

"Diana, Wally, you can come out know," Fate said with a bit of a smirk. "And Wally, do get out of that closet before you run yourself into another dimension."

"Sorry," Wally said as he climbed out. Max stood there and began to snicker at what Fate had said. Wally looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"You just came out of the closet," Max said with a juvenile smirk.

"Oh shut up, Max," Wally said as he realized himself what Max meant.

"Why aren't you dead Max," Diana asked him.

"Don't know, I guessed I sensed something a little off from the dragon," Max began. He lifted his hands up and noticed they were red. "And my hands feel like I just tried to hold onto a burning coal for too long."

"And yet the curse on the statue was for death," Dr Fate's wife said calmly. "He is very interesting, my husband," she said as she turned to Dr Fate.

"Yes he is my love," Fate replied. "But that is not one of the objects that I have brought you here to see, Max Colbern." Fate motioned to Max and the others to follow him.

After walking through many long halls and different staircases that went up, down, and sideways, Fate stopped in front of a single large old wooden door that looked as if it were from the dark ages.

"Come," Fate said as he opened the door with a raise of his hand. "Behind this door are items that I have been pondering over for many years." When he opened the door, Fate stepped aside and allowed Max to enter first.

"Whoa," was the only thing Max could say to the cavernous room. "You could probably fit a few major league football stadiums in here alone." Max walked into the room filled with large bookshelves that held items of every design. He spotted notebooks, coffee mugs, water pitchers, hundreds of writing pens, even modern desktop computers, laptops, servers… he was in rat packer's heaven.

"I see that you are amazed at this collection," Fate replied to Max's reaction. "For the youngest item in this room is over 150 years old."

"That can't be," Max said in disbelief. "There are modern computers in here and many other things that were not around back then."

"That is true," Fate said calmly. "For these items were simply appearing out of nowhere. Many of these computers were thought to be alien technology until just within the last twenty years. Take this laptop here," Fate said. He walked over to one of the massively tall wooden bookshelves and pointed to a laptop covered in a thick layer of dust. "This item here had appeared outside a Russian Noble's home just before the revolution began. And the monitor on the shelf above it appeared near a Viking encampment on Iceland. Each one appeared near the vicinity of a mage or magic user. I have studied these objects and they do not have a single bit of magic residue on them or any type of temporal energies emanating from them."

Max thought about this information for a moment. He wondered why this could have occurred. The laptop alone could have changed the course of this Earth's technological history.

"Fate," Max began as he thought about all the objects in this massive room. "When you probed the effects Zatanna's magic had on me…"

"Yes," Fate replied.

"Did you by chance read the energy readings from myself and my Mendara when you performed the probe?"

Fate thought for a moment and reviewed the probe information in his mind. "I did as a matter of fact. How did you know I performed a probe? I had not told you that yet."

"I felt someone trying to probe my mind as I spoke with Zatanna," Max said as he continued to look over the items on the shelves. "Anyway, can you take those findings and compare them to new readings over these items in here. Can you probe some items to see if they are anything like the energy signatures from the Mendara?"

"I will probe some items once more and compare them with these readings," Fate said in agreement.

"And if you can, see if you can see what will happen if you use magic on a sample of Mendara," Max asked Fate.

"I would like to, but I do not have any such samples in my possession," Fate said from Max's left. Before Fate could say anything else, Max tossed him a crystal the size of a flip top lighter but three times as thick. Fate caught the small crystal and stared at the energy swarming around the surface. "This is fascinating indeed." Fate rolled the crystal between his gloved fingers.

"Fate, why did you ask me here," Diana spoke up from behind Max.

"I asked you here, because I have found some carvings that do not match up to the history that the Amazons have recorded."

"How do you know what is in the Amazonian libraries," Diana asked.

"Because I have given him access to the libraries," a tall dark haired woman said from behind everyone. Everyone turned to the new visitor.

"Mother," Diana asked in disbelief. Standing tall in her royal robes was the Queen of the Amazons, Queen Hippolita. Diana quickly walked up to her mother and queen and gave her a hug.

"It has been a long time, my daughter," Hippolita said with a smile. She looked over at Flash and Fate and then at a man she did not know. "And who is this young man?"

"Mother, may I introduce to you a new friend to the League, Max Colbern, Chosen One and Guardian of the Mendara Crystal," Diana introduced Max.

"Your majesty, this is a very deep honor," Max said as he stood up straight and bowed to her majesty. "This is a first for me meeting a queen."

"And it is an honor to meet you as well, Max Colbern," Queen Hippolita replied. "I have been told of some of the things you have accomplished since arriving. I am also in debt to you for saving my daughter's life."

Max looked at Hippolita in disbelief. "I only did what I always do when someone is in trouble. No debt is present when it involves a friend."

"But still," Hippolita replied, "I do thank you for helping Diana and her friends. Though I have also heard of the other side that deeply troubles me. It reminds me of the tale of Cupid when he first became jealous."

"Yes, the green envy," Max said as he remembered his mythology. "When the love of Cupid had fallen for another man, he was enraged, changing himself with the hatred he had for the betrayal."

"You know of our tales," Hippolita asked, her right eyebrow raising in interest.

"On my Earth, we have mythology of all the Gods and Godesses," Max informed Hippolita. "Yet there are differences between our tales, though only minor. For instance, the Amazons in my world were put in charge of three important places, each one located on a certain island no man could ever find. There, the Amazons watched over three main gates. They were called The Three Holies. The first Gate was the Libraries of the Gods, said to be an archway inside the Amazonian library. It is said to hold all of their knowledge and the continuing knowledge of the human race since its birth. The other two were said to be hidden within the island itself, only known by the queen and the special guard that Zeus and Hera picked themselves. The other two were only guessed at in tales by ancient writers. From what I remember," Max thought for a second. He looked up at Hippolita and Diana. They were both curious and delighted to hear of such tales from another world. Max then glanced over at Wally, he was completely lost. Max gave a smirk at Wally's expression. It was no often Wally felt lost, so Max had been told. "The other two Gates of the Holies were to themselves sights to behold. But there was something I remember about those two gates. There was a riddle hidden inside Library of the Gods that told of the Key to the Heavenly Hell. The story goes that once the riddle is solved, it will bear the location to what the one is looking for. Each of the two gates switched on their own accord. Each one was design to mirror the other, except one gate was made entirely of an unknown gold alloy and the other was made of a black metal, both said to have been made by the Forger of the Gods, Hephaestus. And who so ever chooses correctly would walk among the Gods or walk among their dearly departed."

"The other two gates lead to Olympus and Hades," Wally asked, seeing if he was keeping up to speed. Wally was never really good at Greek or Roman mythology.

"You are correct Wally," Max said with a smile. "They were the two points that were secret to the realm of man. There were two other gates, one to each, that were known as the only ways to each, but these were the only gates that allowed safe passage without any bodily harm."

"Interesting," Hippolita said in response as she thought about Max's world. She began thinking as she stepped away. Max saw the concentration on her face.

"Is she hiding something," Max thought to himself. Max was about to ask Fate about his reading when he noticed he was still busy checking a few of the items. He gave a mental shrug and did not worry too much about it.


	14. Chapter 14

As everything goes, life gets in the way. I have had to take time off from these writings as school, work, and working on the publishing of my first two books have taken priority of these idea factories. I will be updating this and others, as well as add a few, within the month and coming months. Thanks for reading. And again, pre review and comment. Would love to hear what readers are saying.

-TheChosenDragon


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